To move on
by Noxhine
Summary: Life goes on, even though the New Directions' kids grew apart the moment the seniors graduated. This group story follows how every character could have moved on after season three finale.
1. Rachel

**This is the first fanfic I write, so every comment you make will be truly appreciated. Each chapter focuses on one character, but all of them will appear, not in every chapter, but I promise there'll be a little bit of everyone.  
**

* * *

**1. Rachel.**

"I chose. Nobody made me. I chose my path. And I'm happy to be here." Rachel Berry faked another smile in front of the mirror, practicing for the moment she walked out of the ladies room and every single sophomore, junior and senior in McKinley's hallways judged her.

She took a deep breath, she primped one last time and then Mrs. Rachel Barbra Berry opened the door and went to the choir room with her head high, as usual.

She was right, those faces she left behind three months ago were staring at her then. Her perfect hearing didn't fail.

"What is she doing here?"

"That's Berry?"

"Oh my God. Again?"

That particular comment hurt her. She turned to face the person who said it. Rachel raised her eyebrows, smiled falsely and waved her hand to Becky Jackson.

"Nice to see you too, Becky." She sighed and kept walking.

* * *

"Good afternoon, Glee Club fellas." Worst entrance ever. "What the fuck, Rachel? You can do better!" She thought. Those 'fellas' looked at her and frowned. She smiled widely, trying to look happy. There was a part of her that really felt happy when she saw her friends. But that wasn't a shared feeling.

Artie cleaned his glasses, barely believing the return of the diva. Tina opened her eyes and threw her head back. Sugar shouted "vade retro" while holding out Joe's crucifix necklace. Brittany stood up and jumped. "The time machine worked!" Then she ran out of the choir room.

Blaine went and hugged her. He was the only friendly face Rachel found in that room. "She glued an hourglass to the top of the flag pole." Blaine chuckled and let Rachel lean in the hug. They stood in the middle of choir room melting into the embrace.

The former Warbler took her hand and led her to the hallway so they could speak without those looks full of hate. Rachel sat on the stairs. "You don't look surprised", she said.

"I was kinda expecting this." Blaine answered with that always kind smile on his face. "When Kurt told me that he had got into NYADA I put two and two together." He sat next to her, looking down as he talked.

"I didn't tell anyone that I left New York. Well, yeah, my dads, but I don't think they told you." She chuckled and stared at her friend's face.

"I talked to Finn and… well… he told me about your…" Blaine didn't find the words.

Rachel helped him. "That I loved him with my whole heart and I'd come back for him?"

And she felt her heart break into one thousand of little pieces again. Blaine and Rachel looked into each other's eyes. Both of them knew the story. Rachel and Finn had a two-hour long phone call and she ended up promising him that she wasn't selfish and she would be able to give up on her dreams for her fiancé/former fiancé/unknown marital status.

The bell rang. Blaine stood up and went to the choir room after Rachel told him that she needed one minute. One minute to think. "Yes. I left it all. I left it all behind for love." A tear ran down her left cheek. "And yes, I was a fool thinking he'd come back and we would be happy forever and ever." She held her head in her hands and took a deep breath. "I messed it up once, I got a second chance and I… I ran back home hoping that he would be here, waiting for me. I lost. Again."

* * *

Mr. Shue came with his usual first-day vest and his first-day smile. "Who's excited for a brand new year?" He expected more than a weak applause. Once he cast an eye on the choir room, he felt the sorrow too. Too many empty chairs. Too many missed faces. Just Artie, Tina, Brittany, Sam, Blaine, Sugar, Rory and Joe. "So, eight of us. It looks like this year we'll have some recruiting to do too." His smile did never flake. He had to be strong. He had to cheer them up.

"Nine." Rachel said walking in and giving his favorite teacher a tight hug.

"What?" Will frowned, glad to see his greatest star and confused at the same time.

Rachel stood in the middle of the room. Her favorite spot too. "Okay, previously on Rachel Berry's pain and sorrowful story." She got interrupted by a raspberry blown by Sugar. She took another deep breath. "As I was saying, I recently changed my path to success, so I took a little detour by Lima."

Will interrupted her. "But, Rachel, you can't be in Glee Club if you're not a student."

Tina rolled her eyes over. "Oh, yes, she can."

Rachel didn't understand Tina's hostility, but she carried on. "I'm taking some Spanish classes in the afternoon, so…" That time she really expected some contentment from her friends.

Mr. Shue clapped. "Well, that's awesome Rachel. Or Raquel. Como usted prefiera." Will's Spanish were as bad as always.

Rachel sat next to Blaine, glad to be there one more time.

Before Will could say anything about getting new members, Artie rolled to the middle of the room. "Mr. Shue, if I may there's something Tina and I would like to say."

Tina stood up behind him. "Artie and I have prepared an opening number. Nothing big, just a duet as the new New Direction's leaders."

Rachel's eyes opened wide. She blinked a couple times trying to get the attention but her attempt was in vain.

"We hope you enjoy it." Tina said looking at Rachel. Those words sounded like knives driving through the former co-captain's back. "Hit it."

The moment Rachel recognized the melody she almost died.

* * *

_[Guilty - Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb]_

_Tina:  
Shadows falling, baby, we stand alone.  
Out on the street anybody you meet got a heartache of their own._

_Blaine and Joe:  
It oughta be illegal._

Rachel elbowed Blaine in the ribs at Blaine's fun. She was almost freaking out.

_Tina:  
Make it a crime to be lonely or sad._

_Blaine and Joe:  
It oughta be illegal._

_Tina:  
You got a reason for livin'.  
You battle on with the love you're livin' on.  
You gotta be mine.  
We take it away.  
It's gotta be night and day.  
Just a matter of time.  
_

_And we got nothing to be guilty of.  
Our love will climb any mountain near or far, we are.  
And we never let it end.  
We are devotion.  
_

_And we got nothing to be sorry for.  
Our love is one in a million.  
Eyes can see that we got a highway to the sky.  
I don't wanna hear your goodbye.  
Uh!_

_Artie:  
Pulse's racing, darling, how grand we are.  
Little by little we meet in the middle, there's danger in the dark._

_Brittany and Sugar:  
It oughta be illegal._

_Artie:  
Make it a crime to be out in the cold._

_Brittany and Sugar:  
It oughta be illegal._

_Artie:  
You got a reason for livin'.  
You battle on with the love you're buildin' on._

_Artie with Brittany and Sugar:  
You gotta be mine.  
We take it away._

_Artie and Tina:  
It's gotta be night and day.  
Just a matter of time.  
_

_And we got nothing to be guilty of.  
Our love will climb any mountain near or far, we are.  
And we never let it end.  
We are devotion.  
_

_And we got nothing to be sorry for.  
Our love is one in a million.  
Eyes can see that we got a highway to the sky._

_Tina:  
I don't wanna hear your goodbye._

_Artie:  
Don't wanna hear your goodbye._

_Artie and Tina:  
I don't wanna hear your…_

_Artie and Tina with Brittany, Sugar, Blaine and Joe:  
And we got nothing…  
And we got nothing to be guilty of.  
Our love will climb any mountain near or far, we are.  
And we never let it end. (Artie: We never)_

_Tina:  
We are devotion._

_Artie and Tina with Brittany, Sugar, Blaine and Joe:  
And we got nothing to be sorry for.  
Our love is one in a million.  
Eyes can see that we got a highway to the sky.  
Don't wanna hear your…  
And we got nothing to be guilty of._

* * *

Rachel spent the whole song making faces while the rest of the club, including Will, enjoyed it. "Outrageous." She thought during the standing ovation Artie and Tina got. They took a bow. Tina was shining. The spotlight drew a wide smile on her face, and Artie enjoyed applauses like it was the first time he heard them.

Though she didn't stood up, Rachel had to admit that their duet had been more than good. She joined the applauses reluctantly knowing that that year she would have to fight tooth and nail for her solos. Rachel and Tina both looked into each other's eyes. Tina raised an eyebrow. How mighty she felt!

Once everybody sat down, Rachel Berry realized that that was neither her place nor her throne anymore.


	2. Kurt

**2. Kurt**

"Rise and shine, New York! Wake up, sleepy heads, rub your eyes and get up of that bed." Kurt shut off the radio alarm and took a deep breath.

Six a.m., the city was alive, but he felt rather dead. He crawled to the kitchen where he poured two cups of coffee. Kurt held both in one hand, knocked on his roommate's door and came in.

"Get up." He handed her the other cup once she had sat up.

"Every single morning the same verse. Seriously, is there anything else to say to wake people up or is it just Broadway Station is as lame as the people that listen to it? Next time I hear a fucking show tune I swear to God that I'll throw your clock out of the window." She took a long sip and put the cup down on the night stand. She laid back and covered her face with the pillow.

"You're so lovely when you wake up, Santana. You're the light that illuminates our shitty apartment." Kurt answered sarcastically.

"Shut the fuck up."

They had moved in together one and a half months ago. Kurt had a thing against dorms, so when he got, quoting him, "the best phone call ever, even better than yours. Sorry, Blainey, I love you" he convinced Santana to find an apartment for both of them.

He loved NYADA. He won. Finally. He loved his first day. Nineteen other soul mates. Nineteen other people he'd have to crush if he really wanted to make his way to Broadway.

"Are you still thinking of her?" Santana asked.

"She wasn't there. And she wasn't on any list either. There's nothing else I can do. She didn't answer my calls, my texts, my e-mails. I even sent her a carrier pigeon and nothing."

Rachel Berry was the first person Kurt called when he was told that he would attend NYADA that September. She didn't pick up the phone. Neither that day nor the other 43 days he tried to reach her. He thought that she would be too busy meeting the stardom, but when he first walked into "their" classroom, Kurt only found twelve Berry-like girls, but not the original one.

"Do you think she's with Finn?" Santana wondered.

"I talked to Finn last night and he didn't know anything about her."

Kurt and Santana's breakfast had become a ritual. Though they had never been the closest friends, they really enjoyed drinking their black coffee, talking about life and staring at the wall during the long silences.

"I miss her too."

Kurt frowned at Santana. "You miss Rachel?"

"No!" She kicked Kurt in his back. "Brittany. The way you miss him." Santana finished her cup and stood up.

"You have to start using fewer pronouns." He mumbled. After a pause, he continued. "The difference between us, my dear Mrs. Lopez, is that your lover trusts you and mine set me free." Kurt said those three words with sarcasm.

Santana stripped down to her underwear and went to the bathroom. "That little bastard Finned you."

"Excuse me?"

"He Finned you. He's one foot shorter but he thinks that he's some kind of hero by letting you go."

Kurt knew she was right. Blaine was excited for his boyfriend, but the whole Rachel and Finn's break up confused him. The night before Kurt flew to New York Blaine told him that he didn't want to weigh him down. And what did that mean? That he wanted Kurt to find another guy in New York? That he wasn't ready for a long-distance relationship? That he wanted to date other guys without remorse?

"Whatever." New York was making Kurt stronger. "We are not together anymore, I'm okay with it."

While Santana was showering, Kurt brushed his teeth. "Today is Brittany's first day, isn't it?" He asked with his mouth full of toothpaste.

"Head Cheerio, New Directions' leader, Senior President… that's my girl."

"I thought Becky was co-captain with you. And Tina and Artie told me that they were going to claim every single solo they've been denied all these years. And I don't think she's going to get reelected, Santana." Kurt chucked, almost choking with the toothbrush.

"Shut up, Hummel, you're jealous because she beat you." Then there was another pause. "I'm gonna go to Lima this weekend." She said finally.

Santana missed her girlfriend so bad, and Kurt could see it. She might be the number one bitch, but that blondie had really touched her heart.

"You wanna come with me?"

"I… I don't know…"

He spent ten minutes looking into the mirror. He felt tired, heartbroken, lonely… but living his dream.

* * *

The stage of the auditorium number three of New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts lit up for Kurt Hummel. It was his audition for the annual musical. They would have to write it themselves, but he wanted to get the lead role, no matter what.

There was one thing he learnt back at McKinley. If you have to go on stage and you don't feel like it, leave your heart in the dressing room and use the hole to make your voice sound louder. So he stood in the middle of the stage and faked his brightest smile.

_[Cabaret - Liza Minnelli]_

_Kurt:_  
_What good is sitting alone in your room?_  
_Come hear the music play._  
_Life is a cabaret, old chum._  
_Come to the cabaret._

_Put down the knitting, the book and the broom._  
_It's time for a holiday._  
_Life is a cabaret, old chum._  
_Come to the cabaret._

_Come taste the wine._  
_Come hear the band._  
_Come blow a horn._  
_Start celebrating; right this way, your table's waiting._

_What good's permitting some prophet of doom_  
_to wipe every smile away._  
_Life is a cabaret, old chum._  
_So come to the cabaret!_

Kurt danced gracefully, nailed every note and bowed to the audience. An audience that appreciated his talent. An audience that made him feel home.


	3. Brittany

**3. Brittany**

Everybody in that room knew that Brittany S. Pierce may not be the most intelligent, smart or… simply focused at William McKinley High School. Sometimes she said something stupid. Sometimes she said… well, sometimes she didn't say anything because she was talking to herself in her mind. She was not crazy; she was just a reflexive person.

"Okay. Keep smiling. Keep smiling. Keep smiling. Keep smiling. Stop smiling, you're gonna look dumb." Her therapist told her not to do that. He told her to express her thoughts. To say them out loud, even though they are nonsense.

She couldn't talk to herself, so she pictured herself in a white empty room. There were just two chairs. Lord Tubbington sat on one of them, and Brittany was seated opposite to her grossly dimensioned cat.

"So, my dear, what's the problem today?" The cat asked in a British accent. It was Brittany's mind, so if the cat wanted to wear a tux and a top hat, he totally could. "Let's go straight to the point, darling, I have a party to attend in Buckingham Palace. You know, Lizzy wants me to meet William and Kate's dog. And I don't want to look like a gold digger, so if you could give me 100 bucks I'd appreciate it." He winked an eye to his owner and held out his paw. "Why aren't you focusing on the class, honey?"

"Duets bore me. They are confusing. If someone is singing, why not just let them finish the song?" She frowned. "And why are you here? I was expecting Mrs. Spears, she hugs me when I'm sad."

Lord Tubbington crossed his legs. "She's trying to get Lady Gaga out of the business. You know, the whole princess of pop thing. Brit has been wanting to take Gaga to court accusing her of cruelty to animals since the MTV Music Awards of 2010."

Brittany just nodded.

"Do you get it, Brittany?"

"Get what?"

"She fights for what she wants. For what she deserves." Lord Tubbington raised his eyebrows.

And the realization took place.

* * *

Brittany came down to Earth and suddenly stood up. The class wasn't over and Mr. Shue was in the middle of one of his boring pep talks.

"Is everything alright, Brittany?" He asked.

"Girls! We run this motha…" She shouted. "Wait, no, this wasn't the one I wanted to sing." Then Brittany walked out of the door without saying a thing.

Will carried on with his speech. "Sectionals are earlier this year, and we need three more members. We only have seven weeks to figure out the songs, the choreography, the clothing…"

Mr. Shue got interrupted again. Brittany came in with an entourage of Cheerios and a boom box.

_[Till the world ends - Britney Spears]_

_Brittany:_  
_This kicked in got your tongue tied in knots, I see._  
_Spit it out 'cause I'm dying for company._  
_I notice that you got it._  
_You notice that I want it._  
_You know that I can take it to the next level baby._  
_If you want this good shit sicker than the remix._  
_Baby let me blow your mind tonight._

_Brittany with the Cheerios: _  
_I can't take it take it take no more._  
_Never felt like felt like felt like this before._  
_Come on get me get me on the floor._  
_DJ what you what you waiting for?_

_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._

The club started dancing as well.

_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._

_Brittany:_  
_Watch me move when I lose, when I lose it hard._  
_Get you off with a touch, dancing in the dark._  
_You know notice what I'm wearing._  
_I'm noticing you staring._  
_You know that I can take it to the next level baby._  
_Hotter than the A-list, next one on my hit list. _  
_Baby let me blow your mind tonight._

_Brittany with the Cheerios: _  
_I can't take it take it take no more._  
_Never felt like felt like felt like this before._  
_Come on get me get me on the floor._  
_DJ what you what you waiting for?_

_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._

_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh._

_Brittany with the Cheerios and New Directions:_  
_See the sunlight, we ain't stopping._  
_Keep on dancing till the world ends._  
_If you feel it, let it happen._  
_Keep on dancing till the world ends._

_Keep on dancing till the world ends._

"Mr. Shue, class, Cheerios, Britney." She looked up like Britney was dead or something. "I hereby announce my candidacy for New Directions' leader."

"No, seriously, this has to be a joke." Rachel stood up. "I am the captain of this team, you can't pretend that I'm not here."

Tina stood up and faced Rachel. "Look, Berry, you promised me that this was going to be my year. I've let you be the star for three years but you're not gonna overshadow me anymore." She pointed her out with her finger. "You get it? This is my senior year. You had yours. You had your three-season-long Rachel Berry show. And now it's my turn. And you won't take that from me!" Tina ended up shouting, full of rage.

Brittany came closer to her and held out her hand. "Hey, I think we don't know each other. I'm Brittany S. Pierce." She said with a smile on her face. "Vote for me."

Tina pulled her hair out in frustration and yelled. Then she stormed out and bumped into Mrs. Sylvester.

"What the hell is going on and why did you steal my Cheerios, Dummy Dumb-Dumb?" Sue asked to Brittany.

"Sue, please, don't…" William tried to calm things down.

"I am about to give birth. I haven't taken a maternity leave because I am a strong and determined woman who can… Wait a moment." She turned to the kids. "What's Little Barbra doing here?"

"I left New York because my…" Rachel replied, but got interrupted.

"I don't care. It was a rhetorical question. You see this belly? Sylvester doesn't need to hear your pouting either. I am six months pregnant and I don't want to deal with you losers another year." She turned to Brittany before walking away. "You're out of the team, and if you dare to face me and don't take off that uniform in the next two and a half seconds you'll spend the rest of the year pooping pompoms. Am I understood?"

"We won Nationals. We are no losers anymore." Sugar mumbled once Sue and the Cheerios left.

Rachel pointed out. "No thanks to you." She walked to the middle of the choir room. "Okay, let me put it simple and clear. I am back, whether you like it or not."

She couldn't finish her statement. "Mr. Shue, if you're gonna give her the main role in this group again, I'm out." Artie headed to roll out of the class too.

Will took a deep breath. "Rachel, they have a point. I can't hand you the crown one more year. But you have the right to be leader too. So here's what we are going to do." Mr. Shue wrote the names of Rachel, Tina, Brittany and Artie on the board. "Put a number together, and we'll vote for our co-captains." Will made a pause. "Three years ago nobody wanted to be in the yearbook picture and now you're ripping each other's eyes out to become the leaders."

Blaine raised his hand shyly. "Yeah, Blaine?" Mr. Shue asked.

"I'd like to run for co-captain too." He said.

Artie sighed and rolled out of the classroom, while the rest of the kids didn't say a thing. Mr. Shue wrote Blaine's name on the board too. Then there was a silence. It took a few seconds for it to be broken by a tall figure standing on the doorstep.

"I'd definitely vote for you." He winked an eye at Blaine as he came in. "Mr. Shue, right?" He said looking at Will. "I've been told that you need some singers. Well, here I am."

There was a collective eyebrow raise when Sebastian Smythe showed up without his Dalton blazer.


	4. Blaine

**4. Blaine**

The three minutes before the bell rang were so tense. Brittany was mind spitting Rachel. Sebastian was eye fucking Blaine and Sugar tried to sing. It was the biggest saved-by-the-bell ever.

Blaine ran out of the class with his satchel on his shoulder. "I'll call you later," he told Rachel on his way out.

"Whenever you want, hottie," Sebastian replied sarcastically.

The moment Mr. Shue left the choir room and there were just Sebastian, Sam, Rory and Joe, the guys made a circle around the boy. "We don't know your intentions and I honestly don't care, but if you do something to Blaine, if you say something that he doesn't want to hear, you're gonna get the fuck out of here in a heartbeat, okay?" Sam threatened.

"Are you gonna make me, Blondie?" Sebastian stood up and faced him. He was taller than Sam, so Trouty felt a little bit intimidated.

"I'm not going to warn you twice." Sam slapped Sebastian's face softly. Then he smiled and the three friends walked away.

"Hey!" Sebastian called. They turned around. "If Blondie ever touches me again, you two are going to have to do him the jerking off, okay?" Then he walked out of the classroom shouldering Sam aside.

* * *

Blaine threw his satchel on the floor of his room and laid on the bed. He just wanted to fall asleep and forget his problems. The last thing he wanted to do was to think.

"I didn't ask for any of this shit. I didn't ask for this loneliness. I didn't ask for a stalker. I didn't ask to be stuck in a place I don't belong to. I left it all for love. For a love I thought would last forever. And now I know that the honeymoon has to end sooner or later. It has. It fucking has."

He gave the money his parents had saved for him in case he wanted to go back to Dalton to his brother. And he couldn't take it back. He was really stuck at McKinley. He felt like the child whose hand is not held anymore. He felt alone. He felt lost.

The doorbell rang. He dried the tears off his face and opened the door. There was Rachel. Rachel with a box of chocolates. "Hey." That was the only thing Blaine could say.

The two of them went to the former Warbler's room. They sat on his bed and didn't say anything for a few minutes. "So…" Rachel broke the silence. "How are you doing?"

"The day I called Finn… I asked him if he regretted breaking up with you." His eyes filled with tears.

Rachel didn't know what to say. She felt her heart being smashed against the wall. Again. "If you want me to go, Blaine, you just have to say it."

"He cried like a baby on the phone, Rachel."

Her hands started shaking. "Why are you telling me this?" She asked.

"Because I don't regret what I've done." Blaine turned his head to look at his friend. He needed a confidant. He needed to take all of that shit out of his chest. "I don't." He cried softly.

She turned to look at Blaine too and held his hand. "I haven't spoken to Kurt, Blaine. I don't know what happened between you two."

"A few days after Kurt got into NYADA, before he left to New York, I called Finn because I was having too many doubts and I didn't know who could help me." Blaine took a deep breath, squeezing Rachel's hand back. "Even though he didn't want me to break up with his brother… you know Finn, he can't be dishonest with anyone. He told me that maybe it was better to pull the band aid right off than to watch love die little by little."

Rachel couldn't hold her tears back anymore.

Blaine carried on. "You can imagine the rest." He wrapped his arm around Rachel's shoulders, trying to comfort her.

There were tears flooding down Rachel's face, but there was a smile on it too. "I can't be mad at him, Blaine. I can't."

"But he told me that we all had to move on." Blaine rested his head on Rachel's. "But I just need to know if he's okay. I need to know that I didn't rip his heart out." He made a pause. "We should call them."

"I don't want him to know that I left it all for him," she answered sharply, drying her face.

"You don't have to be ashamed of it. You love him."

"But he doesn't love me back, right?"

Blaine couldn't answer the question.

"If he loved me back, he'd be here." Rachel kept crying.

"You just told him that you could leave it all for him. You didn't tell him that you were coming back home, Rachel. He doesn't know it. You didn't tell anyone!"

Rachel stood up and pulled her skirt back down. "I can't ask him to come back." She turned around, heading to the door. "The chocolates have liquor, so… keep it easy."

"Don't go like this." Blaine stood up as well, holding Rachel's wrist. "I'm sorry." He knew that he was taking his problems out on his friend. "We are the next co-captains of New Directions, and we should be supporting each other." Blaine chuckled and stroked Rachel's hand with his thumb.

Rachel wrapped her arms around Blaine's neck and hugged him tight. "I'm gonna need you so much this year." She smiled back at him and kissed his cheek before letting go of the hug. "And we have a duet to prepare."

"Have we?" Blaine felt so good when he saw that smile. He knew that he and Rachel were one of a kind. Both of them were living in the ruins of their broken relationships. And they only had each other when it was about to getting out of all that sorrow.

* * *

Blaine and Rachel stepped into the stage of the auditorium with their right foot. They stood behind Mr. Schuester while he explained the rules. "The five of our candidates get to sing a song, and only Blaine and Rachel haven't yet, so give them a big round of applause and may the best win."

Will climbed off the stage and sat in the audience next to Emma. "I love it when they go all Game-of-throny," she said while she, and only she, applauded the kids on stage.

_[Wide awake – Katy Perry]_

_Rachel:_  
_I'm wide awake._

_Blaine:_  
_I'm wide awake._

_Rachel:_  
_I'm wide awake._

_Blaine:_  
_Yeah, I was in the dark,_  
_I was falling hard_  
_with an open heart._

_Rachel: _  
_I'm wide awake._

_Blaine:_  
_How did I read the stars so wrong._

_I'm wide awake._

_Rachel:_  
_And now it's clear to me _  
_that everything you see _  
_Ain't always what it seems._

_Blaine:_  
_I'm wide awake._

_Rachel:_  
_Yeah, I was dreaming for so long._

_I wish I knew then _  
_what I know now._  
_Wouldn't dive in._  
_Wouldn't bow down._  
_Gravity hurts,_  
_you made it so sweet_  
_till I woke up on,_  
_on the concrete._

_Falling from cloud 9._  
_Crashing from the high. _  
_I'm letting go tonight._  
_Yeah I'm falling from cloud 9._

_I'm wide awake._

_Blaine:_  
_Not losing any sleep._  
_I picked up every piece,_  
_and landed on my feet._

_Rachel:_  
_I'm wide awake. _

_Blaine:_  
_Need nothing to complete myself._

_No._

_Rachel:_  
_I'm wide awake._

_Blaine:_  
_Yeah, I am born again. _  
_Outta the lion's den._  
_I don't have to pretend._

_Rachel:_  
_And it's too late._

_Blaine:_  
_The story's over now, the end._

_I wish I knew then,_  
_what I know now. _  
_Wouldn't dive in._  
_Wouldn't bow down_  
_Gravity hurts,_  
_you made it so sweet_  
_till I woke up on,_  
_on the concrete._

_Blaine:_  
_Falling from cloud 9. (Rachel: It was out of the blue, I…)_  
_Crashing from the high._  
_I'm letting go tonight. (Rachel: Yeah, I'm letting it go, I…) _  
_I'm falling from cloud 9._

_I'm wide awake._

_Rachel:_  
_Thunder rumbling._  
_Castles crumbling. (Blaine: I'm wide awake)_  
_I am trying to hold on._

_I'm wide awake._

_Blaine:_  
_God knows that I tried_  
_seeing the bright side, (Rachel: I'm wide awake)_  
_but I'm not blind anymore._

_I'm wide awake._

_Rachel with Sebastian, backing up in the audience:_  
_I'm wide awake._

_Blaine and Rachel. Joe, Rory and Sam harmonizing:_  
_Yeah, I'm falling from cloud 9. (Sebastian: It was out of the blue, I…)_  
_Crashing from the high._  
_You know I'm letting go tonight. (Sebastian: Yeah, I'm letting go, I…)_  
_I'm falling from cloud 9._

_I'm wide awake._  
_I'm wide awake._  
_I'm wide awake._  
_I'm wide awake._  
_I'm wide awake._

Blaine and Rachel bowed and went backstage, Rachel hopping all the way when they weren't seen. "We nailed it!"

Blaine smiled, though he felt totally messed up. He wasn't expecting the hand Sebastian gave them/him. Mostly him. "Maybe I'm taking things for granted. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just prejudiced against him. Maybe…" His inner thoughts were interrupted by the sudden kiss Rachel planted on his lips.


	5. Sugar

**5. Sugar**

"Are we going to vote or what?" Sugar asked impatiently.

The group had made a circle. Mrs. Pillsbury gave a piece of paper to every kid, including Will. "Write down the names of the two candidates you want to be the new co-captains." She made a brief pause. "Oh, I love democracy." She smiled widely and sat down.

"We should wait for Blaine and Rachel to come back," Will said. "For the record, the captains will decide the recruiting numbers. We still need two more members, and they have to be able to sing. We can't go to Sectionals with the band just moving their mouths on the back."

Tina raised an eyebrow as she looked at Sugar. "Then make it three," she whispered to Artie to in his ear.

Sugar could hear it. "I was the star of the Troubletones, you can't mock me." She turned to Rory. "Why aren't you defending my honor? I am your lady, I thought you used monarchy and that stuff in your country."

"You dumped me in the summer; I don't have to defend you anymore." He turned to Sam. "Right?" He really didn't know if he had to do it or not. Adapting to the American culture was taking him a little bit longer than he expected. Sam shook his head.

"My dad bought you the green card, so technically you're mine. And if I don't make you wear a leash is because they are so 2010." She headed to the backstage as the New Directions struggled to get out of the shock that Sugar's words had caused.

"21st century teenage slavery. Hot," Sebastian said.

"You're so disgusting," Sam replied as the Warbler winked an eye at him.

* * *

"We are about to vot…" Sugar went speechless the moment she saw Blaine and Rachel making out. "OH." She put her hand on her chest. "MY." Her eyes opened so much that she felt a cramp. "GOD!"

Blaine and Rachel pulled back. He fixed his bowtie and Rachel blushed so bright she could have been confused with a traffic light. "Please don't tell anyone!" the both of them shouted in unison.

"And what's in it for me?" Sugar sat on one of the boudoirs, with her legs crossed and her eyebrows raising intermittently.

"One solo, two solos, one hundred solos!" Rachel got down on her knees, begging while Blaine leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, putting his head between his knees.

Sugar burst out laughing. "Okay, I won't tell anyone because you're so tiny that I don't think anybody would notice anyway, so…" She shrugged and walked out of the backstage, followed by Blaine and Rachel. "What did I miss?" she asked to the group.

"Okay, so let's do this." Will waited a few seconds to count the votes out loud. "Artie and Tina. Tina and Artie."

The both of them high-fived.

"Brittany and Brittany? Brittany, you can't vote yourself twice."

"I sang on my own, that's twice as difficult, so I deserve twice of votes. Mr. Shue, I thought I was the dummy one."

Will sighed and carried on. "Rachel and Blaine. Blaine and Rachel inside a star. Blaine and Rachel. Brittany and he-midget. Barbra and Hottie." Schuester frowned at Sebastian and Sugar. "You have to stop calling these things to each other. Nicknames hurt."

She sent a thankful prayer to the whole class. "It's okay, Mr. Shue, as long as they acknowledge our…" Blaine shut Rachel's mouth before she could finish her classic statement.

"And, last vote, Brittany S. Pierce and… what's the other name?"

"I think that's mine," Rory said. "It's Blaine."

"I thought being a foreigner did just affect the speech, not the writing. I'm gonna have to teach you how to write too?" Sugar pulled her hair out in exhaustion.

"Tina and Artie, two votes. Brittany, three votes. Rachel, four votes. Blaine, six votes. We have our new co-captains," Will announced.

"New? Seriously?" Tina was trying her best not to stand up and smack Rachel against the piano.

Rachel stood up and took a bow. Blaine just smiled, feeling himself loved. "Thanks," he said.

"Mr. Schuester, I know that you are about to go begging on your knees for more members and I don't have to, but I have prepared a number for my audition." Sebastian stood up and whistled like a shepherd calling his flock. Five Warblers appeared in his blazers on the stage. "They owe me one, I threw the party where they got laid for the first time. Pretty awesome. Next time I'll invite you all."

He joined his friends on the stage. "And, giving the circumstances, this song goes out to our leader."

_[Girlfriend – Avril Lavigne]_

_Sebastian with the Warblers:_  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your boyfriend._  
_No way, no way, I think you need a new one._  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I could be your boyfriend._

_Hey, hey, you, you, I know that you like me._  
_No way, no way, you know it's not a secret._  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I want to be your boyfriend._

_You're so fine, I want you mine, you're so delicious._  
_I think about you all the time, you're so addictive._  
_Don't you know what I can do to make you feel alright?_

_Don't pretend, I think you know I'm damn precious._  
_And hell yeah, I'm the motherfucking prince here._  
_I can tell you like me too and you know I'm right._

_He's like so whatever._  
_You could do so much better._  
_I think we should get together now._  
_And that's what everyone's talking about._

_Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your boyfriend._  
_No way, no way, I think you need a new one._  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I could be your boyfriend._

_Hey, hey, you, you, I know that you like me._  
_No way, no way, you know it's not a secret._  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I want to be your boyfriend._

_I can see the way, I see the way you look at me._  
_And even when you look away I know you think of me._  
_I know you talk about me all the time again and again._

_So come over here and tell me what I wanna hear._  
_Better yet, make your boyfriend disappear._  
_I don't wanna hear you say his name ever again._

_Cause he's like so whatever._  
_And you could do so much better._  
_I think we should get together now._  
_And that's what everyone's talking about._

_Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your boyfriend._  
_No way, no way, I think you need a new one._  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I could be your boyfriend._

_Hey, hey, you, you, I know that you like me._  
_No way, no way, you know it's not a secret._  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I want to be your boyfriend._

_In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger._  
_Cause I can, cause I can do it better._  
_There's no other, so when's it gonna sink in?_  
_He's so stupid, what the hell were you thinking?_

_In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger._  
_Cause I can, cause I can do it better._  
_There's no other, so when's it gonna sink in?_  
_He's so stupid, what the hell were you thinking?_

_Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your boyfriend._  
_No way, no way, I think you need a new one._  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I could be your boyfriend._  
_No way, no way._

_Hey, hey, you, you, I know that you like me._  
_No way, no way, you know it's not a secret._  
_Hey, hey, you, you, I want to be your boyfriend._  
_No way, no way, no way, hey, hey!_

Blaine raised his notebook with a gigantic "NO" written on it. He shook it and pointed at the clearest message ever several times while Sugar applauded like crazy. "You are a hottie too, but… you have homicidal instincts and I don't know if our thing could work, but thanks, sweetie." The most awkward thing in the auditorium wasn't the constant sexual harassment or the proportionally constant rejection between the two former Warblers, it was that Sugar said those words absolutely convinced of Sebastian's crush on her.

Will didn't know what to say either. It was the second day and there was already a civil war between hormones at that high school. "Welcome to New Directions, Sebastian and, Blaine and Rachel, you have to put together our recruiting numbers for next week, okay?" He grabbed Emma by the arm and, according to what he told her later, "when the tension is not violent but only sexual, the best thing you can do is to get the fuck out of the class. Let them blow off some steam and try newer and weirder pairings. It has never failed in three years."

* * *

Sugar walked out of the auditorium and went to her locker. Rachel and Blaine passed by next to her while she was picking up her cardigan. "You owe me." She did while making the watching-you sign to the couple. They just nodded and kept walking.

Sebastian appeared right when Sugar shut her locker. She jumped in alarm, not expecting him so close to her. "What do you want? Don't stalk me. I know I've broken your heart, but that doesn't entitle you to be a creepo."

He blinked a couple times, annoyed. "Look, girl, I don't like you, you wish I liked you. I just need to know how things are going between the little piece of meat and Lady Face."

"And why do you think I'm gonna tell you? They're my friends."

"Because I could set you up with one of my friends. Choose the one you like the most and he'll be your new slave. I can't believe that the Irish kid pleases you."

"I don't know…" Sugar bit her bottom lip. "The evil one was Santana, I don't know if I wanna sell my fri…"

Then Sebastian kissed Sugar passionately.

"They broke up in the summer because Blaine didn't want to be in a long-distance relationship with Kurt living with Santana. And now he's nailing Rachel Berry because Kurt kicked her out of NYADA so he could get in." Sugar basically spat the words.

Sebastian pulled back and walked away. "Now being just gay is too mainstream for these people." He sighed and left Sugar sliding down to the floor, in shock and horny as hell.


	6. Santana

**6. Santana**

Friday, 10 am, the hallways of McKinley are crowded with students going to their lockers or on their way to other classes.

"Okay, ladies, this is our moment. We are just four against six boys, so we need new girls to balance it out, because even though I can beat fifty men on the stage, I need more female back-up singers. Am I understood?" Rachel's pep talks usually tended to look like 'How to make your ego grow in 12 steps' master classes.

The four New Directions' girls were dressed like they had just performed at the Moulin Rouge ninety years ago. "We know the plan," she carried on. "Turn on her boyfriends so they want to join us and be as sexy and talented as I… sorry… as we all are."

They walked out of the bathroom and made a sign to the band so that they would start playing.

_[Show me how you burlesque – Christina Aguilera]_

_Rachel:_  
_Underneath the city lights,_  
_there is a world few know about_  
_where rules don't apply, no._  
_And you can't keep a good girl down._

The crowd fell silent, astounded by "the impromptu performance." They conformed a circle around the girls and watched them amazed.

_Brittany:_  
_She's going through the club looking for a good time._  
_Gonna make that, shake that, money on the dime._  
_Don't need a sugar daddy, she'll be working it just fine._  
_Up on the table she'll be dancing all night_

_Tina:_  
_He-eh-eh-hey!_

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Ah-uh-uh._

_Tina:_  
_Babydoll just comes alive._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Ah-uh-uh._

_Tina:_  
_Under the spotlight._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Ah-uh-uh._

_Tina:_  
_All the girls wanna fall in line._

_Tina with Brittany and Sugar:_  
_We say._

_Rachel:_  
_He-eh-eh-hey!_

_Sugar:_  
_Here come the ladies about to give a little show._

_Rachel:_  
_He-eh-eh-hey!_

_Sugar:_  
_Here comes the boozie, gonna show a little more._

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Won't let you rest. _

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_This is not a test._

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Gotta give me your best._

_New Directions' girls:_  
_So get your ass up._  
_Show me how you burlesque._

_Hit it up, get it up._  
_Won't let you rest._  
_Hit it up, get it up._  
_This is not a test._  
_Hit it up, get it up._  
_Gotta give me your best._  
_So get your ass up._  
_Show me how you burlesque._

Every boy (and some girls) in the hallways enjoyed the song, and the dancing. Especially the dancing. And especially Jacob Ben Israel, whose camera was already on the floor because he needed his hands to hide his "excitement."

_Tina with Brittany and Sugar:_  
_A little bit of naughty is a little bit nice._  
_She's a whole lot of glam, sweet, sugar, sex, spice._  
_Shimmy, shimmy, strut, strut._  
_Give a little work, work._  
_We'll be up on the table._  
_We'll be dancing all night._

_Rachel:_  
_He-eh-eh-hey!_

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Ah-uh-uh._

_Rachel:_  
_Everybody just comes to life._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Ah-uh-uh._

_Rachel:_  
_Under the spotlight._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Ah-uh-uh._

_Rachel:_  
_All the boys wanna fall behind._

_Rachel with Brittany and Sugar:_  
_We say._

_Tina:_  
_He-eh-eh-hey._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Here come the ladies bout to give a little show._

_Tina:_  
_He-eh-eh-hey._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_Here come the boozie gonna show a little more._

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany:_  
_Won't let you rest._

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_This is not a test._

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany, Sugar and Tina:_  
_Gotta give me your best._

_New Direction's girls:_  
_So get your ass up._  
_Show me how you burlesque._

_Hit it up, get it up._  
_Won't let you rest._  
_Hit it up, get it up._  
_This is not a test._  
_Hit it up, get it up._  
_Gotta give me your best._  
_So get your ass up._  
_Show me how you burlesque._

_Sugar:_  
_Okay, girls, let's show 'em how it's done._  
_It ain't over 'till we say,_  
_and we've only just begun._

_Rachel:_  
_Let me hear you say:_  
_yeah, yeah, yeah._  
_Say yeah, yeah, yeah._  
_Say yeah, yeah, yeah._  
_Say yeah, yeah, yeah._

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany:_  
_Won't let you rest._

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany and Sugar:_  
_This is not a test._

_Rachel and Tina:_  
_Hit it up, get it up._

_Brittany, Rachel and Sugar:_  
_Gotta give me your best._

_New Direction's girls:_  
_So get your ass up._  
_Show me how you burlesque._

_Hit it up, get it up._  
_Won't let you rest._  
_Hit it up, get it up._  
_This is not a test._  
_Hit it up, get it up._  
_Gotta give me your best._  
_So get your ass up._  
_Show me how you burlesque._

The girls were enjoying their standing ovation while Rachel handed everyone a business card. "Here's my number, call me at any time, night and day, if you're interested in joining our Glee Club. " Jacob took his, practically pulling it out of his idol's hand. He smelled the card and ran to the bathroom before Rachel's disgust. She came back to the group. "We nailed it!"

And suddenly a hand appeared out of the blue and slapped Rachel in her face. She stumbled down and fell to the floor.

"And now you're gonna tell me why you are nailing my girlfriend!"

* * *

Sue took Rachel and Santana to her office.

"WWE lady wrestlers, let me introduce myself. My name is Sue Sylvester, coach of the Cheerios, mother of the second president of Earth, Sylvester Sylvester, because we all know that globalization is something unstoppable; and security manager of the William McKinley High School, the same William McKinley High School you use as boxing ring."

"Mrs. Sylvester, we know who…"

"I know who you are too, Sandbags, it's just I like to reset my brain every time a promotion graduates, because I really hope that I don't have to see them ever again! Now tell me why you two are here and why you were fighting in the hallway."

"First of all, we weren't fighting. I was physically assaulted in the middle of a standing ovation that I've earned due to my proficiency as leader of New Direc…"

"Oh, come on, Berry, cut the crap," Santana interrupted. "Let me explain it to you. The dwarf was living the dream in New York, but she shitted herself the moment she found out his chubby boyfriend was licking her butt no longer."

"A) Finn is not chubby, he's just less defined than other guys. And B) I didn't shit myself, I left it all for love."

"And you smack her just because she isn't able to manage her relationship? Santana, you have some serious problems." Sue started writing down on a piece of paper. "This is the number of my shrink. That woman keeps calling me asking about my mental state, so if you entertain her with your post-teenage dramas you will really help the both of us."

"No! I hit her because she nailed Brittany!"

"What?!" Rachel stood up.

Santana stood up as well. "You've heard me, Moustache!"

Sue pulled them back down into their chairs. "Is that true, Rachele? You've been doing dirty things with Brittany?"

"Of course not! I'm not into girls!" Rachel started freaking out.

"Then tell me why I've been sent this." Santana showed Rachel her cell phone. The picture on it really was Rachel kissing Brittany.

"That didn't happen! Oh my God, Santana, are you blind or what?! This is a fake! Don't you see that I'm dressed like the day we lost Nationals?"

Santana looked harder at the picture. "Oh. When Finn tried to eat you on-stage."

"Actually, Brittany is not even dressed, or standing. And there's a watermark that says 'Two girls one cat'. Santana, is everything okay with your eyes?" Sue couldn't believe what a lousy collage she was looking at.

"The doctor told me that I should wear glasses. But you can't wear glasses in New York without a bunch of hipsters trying to get your Twitter," she answered.

"You've flown more than 500 miles just to slap me because you are jealous?"

"You wish." Santana stood up and walked away of Sue's office.

"I will never get rid of you all, right?" Sue asked Rachel.

* * *

Santana waited for Brittany in the hallway until her calculus class finished. Her smile lit up the whole high school the moment she saw that blonde coming out of the classroom. They didn't say a word. Just hugged for ten long (but short for them) minutes.

They went to the cafeteria and had lunch together. Santana felt strangely happy. That infinite line, that tasteless food, the chairs and tables which they had danced on so many times… All those memories came back to her while she was holding her girlfriend's hand.

"You haven't told me what you're doing here. I thought you were coming for the weekend." Brittany rested her head on Santana's shoulder while holding the line.

"I miss you. But let's talk about you. How's everything going?"

"Well… it turns out that calculus was not about dead languages, it's actually Math. And now I know how to divide." Brittany smiled proud of herself.

"I love you so much."

* * *

Rachel went running to Sebastian's table. She hit his milk box against the tray. "I am angry."

"Come on, Rachel, you don't intimidate me. You can't intimidate anyone. It's physically impossible for you to induce fear. You're too…" Sebastian didn't find the words, so he just patted Rachel under her chin like she was a cat. "And please, don't take it out on the milk. I'm sure you would have grown taller if you had taken more milk when you were a child instead of trading it for tacky clothes."

Rachel took a deep breath and sat in front of Sebastian. "Can you tell me why the hell you've sent Santana a 'picture', if it can even be called that, of me and Brittany making out?"

"You have no proof, Berry. And that's a very ugly accusation."

"It's obvious that you don't give the best of yourself unless there are penises involved, you perv."

"I'm eating, Rachel, please. Don't be rude." Sebastian grinned while he took a bite out of his apple.

"You disgust me. You disgust us all." She pointed out with her finger.

"You know what's disgusting? You trying to rape poor poor Blainey." He carried on before Rachel could even reply. "I know what you tried to do. I know that you're an emotional train wreck, but I came here for a reason, and when I set a goal, I go for it till the end, not like you."

Santana and Brittany joined them. "So I've already been replaced?" Santana raised her eyebrows. "Is everything okay?"

"Nice to see you too, Jenny." He held Rachel's hand, but she quickly took it away. "I was just reminding my dear Barbra that if she keeps getting on my way, I will show her my not so beautiful face. Okay?" He stood up.

"Don't threaten me, Sebastian," Rachel replied.

"It's not a threat. I'm just saying that I don't know what you're playing, but I am willing to go all the way. And if that way goes by that dude you used to call 'fiancé'… well, I warned you." He smiled and walked away.

Santana sat next to Rachel. Maybe they weren't BFFs, but she actually had a heart, so Santana couldn't help worrying about Rachel the moment she saw tears in her eyes. "Hey. I… I owe you an apology." She stroked Rachel's back. The crying girl just smiled as a sign of forgiveness, but she couldn't speak. "And we are not gonna let that motherfucker play with us again."

Brittany sat down too. "Yeah, Rachel. Don't cry. He can't steal your teeth too." The other two girls frowned.

Rachel turned to Santana. "He can't find out. He can't find out anything."

"Who? Finn?" Santana answered. "Find out about what?"

"About me and Blaine."

"About you and who?" Kurt frowned standing right behind them.


	7. Sebastian

**7. Sebastian**

Sebastian stood behind the cafeteria door, watching the show. Rachel was totally on her nerves, Santana trying to make her stop pouting. "That girl is definitely an ugly crier. Oh my God, somebody please put a bag on that face. Please," he thought. And Brittany was gobbling a whole box of chicken wings because she wanted to fly. Damn whoever told her the meaning of "you'll have what you eat."

And then there was the special guest star. It was obvious that New York's weather is not enviable at all, because he was the palest Porcelain ever. And the loudest too. "You what?!" Kurt yelled at Rachel.

"Let me explain, okay?" Rachel tried to cool things down. "It was just once. And it meant nothing, just…"

Kurt was out of himself. The last thing he was expecting to find in that cafeteria was his missing former BFF. Oh, no, the last last thing he was expecting was to find his former BFF had made out with his boyfriend. His gay boyfriend. No, his gay ex boyfriend. No, his ex gay ex boyfriend. Technically complicated situation.

"Maybe it didn't mean anything the first time. Rachel, do you really think that I'd buy that?! You two have a past together!"

"That's not a past! We kissed twice. And he turned me down."

"So you came back to finish what you started, right? Oh my God, Rachel, I knew this might happen, but not with you." Kurt turned around and headed out.

"Kurt, wait. He wasn't your boyfriend anymore. I didn't do anything wrong."

"Would you like me to hit on Finn?!" Kurt didn't notice, but he was actually making a scene and the whole cafeteria was staring at them.

"Gross," Brittany said.

"Double gross," Santana pointed out.

Rachel stood up and faced Kurt. "You have no right to make me feel guilty because I found someone who…"

Kurt put his finger on Rachel's lips. "Shut up. Don't you dare say that you've found Blaine because I, me, Kurt Hummel, found him. You just take away from me the things I love."

She pushed Kurt's finger away. "I finally found someone who's as hurt as me."

Kurt didn't answer. He stood there, in front of Rachel for almost a minute. "I am the one who got dumped at the gate 21 at Dayton Airport. Maybe I am the one you should have called the day you came back here!"

A tear ran down Rachel's face. "How could I have told you that I was giving up on our dream? I had to put up with my dad telling me 'you're screwing it up' every single day for the rest of this damn summer."

"I was your best friend." Kurt started crying too.

"And I would have disappointed you. And you would have tried to make me come back. You'd have got out… It's better this way." Rachel drew a smile on her face.

"Is it better this way? Is it better that you get stuck here forever?! Rachel, you finally made it!"

"I googled Lady Tibideaux, and it turned out that her father died of some cardiac disease. So I told her that my dad had had a heart attack and I needed to go back home. So she told me to take a gap year to be with my family and that next year there would be a stage waiting for me in NYADA."

"You are the worst." Santana smiled and high-fived Rachel.

Kurt blinked. "So you basically killed your father…"

"No! Everything's planned. He'll find a donor around June or so and I'll come back to New York. It's perfect. Nothing can fail," Rachel interrupted.

"And you didn't think about Finn never showing up? And even if he came running back into your arms, what would you do when you had to part again?" Santana asked.

"We were supposed to get married, find out that we couldn't live without each other and then move to New York, where every single banner would star my face, advertising the best musical. I'm not the one who says it, The Broadway Academy is, in the 71th Tony Awards." She took a deep breath before carrying on with her fantasy. "Hosted by my dear Kurt Hummel and Miss Shelby Corcoran. You see? Perfect." A big pride smile on her face, the usual facial expression when Rachel Berry's mind flew far away to an imaginary (and maybe forthcoming, "wait, what? Maybe? Please...", she thought.) time and place. Then she realized that she was crying two minutes ago. "Where were we?"

Kurt walked away.

"What… Where… Kurt!" Rachel called.

He turned around. "I won't let it all revolve around you anymore, Rachel. I thought you had changed, but will die being the same selfish wannabe-diva that I met four years ago."

"I am not selfish!"

"You let your 'best friend' think…" Kurt's air quotes couldn't have expressed his rage better that his loud tone. "…I don't even know what I thought! Whatever, I don't care. Deal with your embarrassment and with your loneliness the best way you can. I don't give a fuck for you anymore, Rachel."

Kurt stormed out of the cafeteria, almost running down the hallway, where Sebastian joined in his flight. "Hello," he said with that big fake smile on his face.

Hummel couldn't barely believe who was standing next to him the moment he stopped his march. He turned to face Sebastian, but when he was about to tell him that he could go rot in hell, his archenemy started clapping.

"I didn't know that you actually had blood running through those white veins of yours, Mrs. Hummel. You almost… didn't make me sleep standing up."

Kurt resumed his way out.

"Come on, man! Not even a 'hey, hot stuff, how are you doing?' That's very rude of you. I thought that corsets made you ladies be more polite. You know, the whole being refined for your social meetings. You would have had so much fun in the 19th century."

Sebastian chose not to keep up with Kurt's pace, so he turned the corner and went to the auditorium. "Always nice to see you, honey. You gotta tweet me the make-up you use, I want to put on a drag queen's show for Sectionals."

* * *

Blaine was practicing his dance moves. He wanted to do his best. He needed to do his best. New Directions had trusted him to be their leader; he had to live up to his position.

"Thank God that he-Chang is gone and now those feet of yours have the best moves of the whole choir," Sebastian complimented Blaine as he walked into the April Rhodes Civic Pavilion.

Blaine stopped and came down the stage. He felt exhausted. "Sebastian, I can't put up with you anymore. You have five minutes to stalk me and then you can go."

"I'm here to rehearse."

Blaine raised his eyebrows and burst into laughter. Sebastian climbed upon the stage, took a stool and sat on it.

"What a way to rehearse," Blaine said.

"I owe you an apology."

The little Warbler started feeling cramps in his eyebrows. "You what? Do you need help? It's an ictus. It definitely looks like an ictus."

Sebastian chuckled. "This is like Halley's comet, it will happen once and never again in the next 75 years. So sit down, shut up and let me talk without your lovely yet annoying and smooth sarcasm, okay?"

Blaine sat on the first raw. He felt like watching the best play ever played on that stage, even better than his West Side Story. "Fine, talk."

"Which one do you want? The long and humiliating version or the short and straight-to-the-point one?" Sebastian asked.

The other boy rolled his eyes. "You choose, I don't care. I won't buy any." He chuckled.

"You know me. I like them short." He teased Blaine. "And surprisingly straight too."

Both of them laughed. Blaine let his walls down. The laughs, the good mood, being about to perform in front of the whole student body… it all made him be less defensive. He felt… comfortable?

"As I was saying, I owe you an apology. I have no right to sexually harass you. Actually I don't want to either, it's just… I'm not used to rejection." Sebastian made a pause and took a deep breath, trying to recall everything he wanted to say. "The day I met the legendary Blaine Anderson I thought 'he's gotta be mine'." A big smile shone on Sebastian's face. "I spent the following week asking everyone about you. What you like, what you don't like, your history… Everything. It's not a secret that I have a little crush on you."

"Little?" Blaine interrupted smiling too.

"To-be-measured crush. But that's not my point. My point is that it's not right for me to force you to like me. So… I'm sorry and I'll try my best to… keep a healthy friendly environment between us." Sebastian noticed Blaine's disbeliever face and had to extend his coverage. "And between your friends/ex boyfriends/girls you do." He climbed off the stage and held his hand out as a peace offering.

Blaine shook Sebastian's hand. He couldn't deny his reluctance, but he definitely could hide it. It was better for him, and for everybody, that things between them were smooth and… "yeah, why not friendly?" he thought.

"Come on, there's a high school that needs to meet my talent." Sebastian walked away, ready for their performance.

* * *

The courtyard was filled with people. Most of them were too busy minding their own business/meals, but New Directions was less hated than previous years. They couldn't say that they were the new American Idols, but the slushie rate had brought down noticeably.

The boys were dressed in leather pants and jackets, following Rachel's "sexistrategy". And the music started to play.

_[Don't stop me now – Queen]_

_Sebastian_:  
_Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time,_  
_I feel alive._  
_And the world I'll turn it inside out._  
_Yeah! _  
_I'm floating around in ecstasy. So…_

_Sebastian with New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._  
_Don't stop me 'cause I'm having a good time._  
_Having a good time._

_Sam:_  
_I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky,_  
_like a tiger defying the laws of gravity. _

_Joe:_  
_I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva._  
_I'm gonna go go go._  
_There's no stopping me!_

_Blaine:_  
_I'm burning through the sky. Yeah! _  
_Two hundred degrees,_  
_that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit._  
_I'm travelling at the speed of light._

_Blaine with New Directions' boys:_  
_I wanna make a supersonic man of you._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._

_Rory:_  
_I'm having such a good time._  
_I'm having a ball._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._

_Artie:_  
_If you wanna have a good time,_  
_just give me a call._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._

_Artie:_  
_'Cause I'm having a good time._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._

_Rory:_  
_Yes, I'm having a good time._

_Artie and Rory:_  
_I don't want to stop at all _

_Sam:_  
_I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars_  
_on a collision course._  
_I am a satellite. I'm out of control._

_Joe and Sam:_  
_I am a sex machine ready to reload,_  
_like an atom bomb about to _  
_Oh oh oh oh oh explode._

_Blaine and Sebastian:_  
_I'm burning through the sky. Yeah! _  
_Two hundred degrees,_  
_that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit._  
_I'm travelling at the speed of light._  
_I wanna make a supersonic woman of you._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me. Don't stop me. Don't stop me._

_Blaine:_  
_Hey hey hey!_

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me don't stop me._  
_Uh uh uh._

_Blaine:_  
_I like it._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me. Don't stop me._

_Blaine:_  
_Have a good time. Good time._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me. Don't stop me._  
_Oh yeah!_

_Blaine and Sebastian:_  
_Oh I'm burning through the sky. Yeah! _  
_Two hundred degrees,_  
_that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit._  
_I'm travelling at the speed of light._  
_I wanna make a supersonic man out of you._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._

_Rory:_  
_I'm having such a good time._  
_I'm having a ball._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._

_Artie:_  
_If you wanna have a good time,_  
_just give me a call!_

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._

_Blaine:_  
_'Cause I'm having a good time._

_New Directions' boys:_  
_Don't stop me now._

_Sebastian:_  
_Yes I'm having a good time._

_Blaine and Sebastian with New Directions' boys:_  
_I don't wanna stop at all!_


	8. Tina & Rachel

**8. Tina & Rachel**

"You and I. Coffee. Now," Tina shouted when she reached Kurt on his way to his car.

Kurt turned around with tear-filled eyes. He hugged his friend so tight that Tina's contacts almost fell out. She hugged him back before they went to Kurt's to have that coffee.

* * *

They sat on his couch. Tina could easily tell about the sadness on Kurt's face. "Let me be your Mercedes, okay? Teen diva coffee afternoon, okay?"

The boy smiled. "Thanks." He made a pause. "Where do I begin?" he chuckled softly. Too many things had happened since he left Lima. And especially since he came back to Lima.

"Tell me about those red eyes."

Kurt sighed. "Am I that obvious? Well… my boyfriend leaves me and when I come back to see him I find out that he's been making out with Rachel. Briefly, that's all."

"That bitch. I wouldn't be surprised if she did it with Mike."

He chuckled. "You sound… so different, Tina. What happened to you?"

"I wanted this to be my year, Kurt," Tina pouted. "But I know that as long as she's here it won't be possible. I've been doing every back up for her in every single solo she's sung in a competition. I want to be the star. Just for once. And this is our year. New Directions is not a bunch of losers anymore. We made it last year, and I want to take us to the top again. And you know the worst thing? That I know I can, but they won't let me with Rachel Berry standing one step forward."

Tina felt so powerless. So over. She spent the whole summer practicing her singing. Trying to improve until her throat was so sore she felt it bleed.

"They?" Kurt frowned.

"I can't compete with Rachel and Blaine."

Kurt laughed. He was feeling the same way. They are both the same kind. Unbeatable. Unstoppable. Un-unlovable. "Demand what's yours. Prove them you're Tina Cohen-Chang. You're the legit leader. You don't have to bang your hair or dress like Mary Poppins and a clown's bastard child."

Tina laughed at Kurt's taunt. "I sang Barbra. Barbra, Kurt. And they preferred Blaine and Rachel singing Katy Perry."

"But you sang Barbra with Artie, right?"

Tina nodded and took a deep breath. She's smelled like failure for days.

"Then," Kurt carried on, "you just have to sing it with the only one person on Earth that Rachel's afraid of when we talk about a diva-off."

"And how am I supposed to reach Barbra Streisand?" Tina sounded so helpless. "Wait. Did you meet her in New York?" Her eyes sparkled again.

"Let me make a few calls and next Monday you'll be beating her ass and by Tuesday you'll be rehearsing your solo for Sectionals." Kurt gave her a kiss on her cheek and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You deserve it."

* * *

Saturday night. Rachel wasn't in the mood to go out, so she was wrapped in her Snuggie, eating popcorn and watching Funny Girl for the 236th time. True fact, she was keeping the track of it.

"People. People who need people. Are the luckiest people in the world!" she sang along with Fanny Brice.

Someone knocked on her door. Rachel paused the movie, cleaned the crumbs out off her Snuggie and opened the door.

"Hey." Blaine waved his hand. He let out a slight chuckle when he saw the mess that was Rachel's hair. Actually, she was a total mess.

Rachel smiled and grabbed Blaine's hand, taking him to the couch, where they both sat. "So… You look…" Blaine didn't know what to say. He looked at the TV and got it. "Funny." The both of them laughed. Rachel started playing with Blaine's hand. She didn't know what to say either.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"We should, right?" Blaine kept smiling.

"What did he tell you?"

"He apologized and he told me that he'll do his best for us to be friends. All of us."

"He apologized? Why?"

"Because he's been acting like a sexual maniac? Maybe?" Blaine frowned.

"Who are we talking about?"

"I'm talking about Sebastian. You?"

Rachel's eyes shut wide. "He hasn't…"

"Rachel, spit it out." Blaine was starting to get impatient. Rachel just nodded. She knew that she didn't need to mention Kurt's name for Blaine to understand it. "Okay…" Blaine sighed. "He's in town, right?"

Rachel nodded again. "Moment ruined. Applause for Berry," she thought.

"And… did you see him?" Blaine's face was definitely darker. Rachel could see right through those hazel eyes. His sorrow. His loss. She kept nodding. "And… is he okay?"

And then Rachel's heart broke. She couldn't hold the tear that dropped on their intertwined hands. How many times would Finn have wondered if she was okay? Rachel's thoughts got interrupted by Blaine's other hand cupping her face. His always gentle smile comforted her.

"He's… I don't know, Blaine. I don't… I don't know. I… He found out about us. And he isn't okay with it, obviously."

Blaine didn't want to hurt her feelings, but he was too concerned about Kurt's visit. Anyway, he took a deep breath and kissed Rachel. She shook her head and pulled back. "Don't," Rachel said. "I don't want you to pity-kiss me."

He laughed. "Pity-kiss you? Seriously, Rachel?" Blaine hugged her friend tight. "If I didn't want to kiss you, I wouldn't have come."

Rachel hugged him back, letting herself cry a little more on his shoulder. "I don't know what we're doing anymore, Blaine. I don't know anything."

Blaine kicked his shoes off and laid on the couch, holding her on top of his body. "I know that I don't want to hurt you."

She could smell rejection in every word Blaine was saying. He maybe didn't want to hurt her, but… his heart was somewhere else. "Do you really want to do this? Even with Kurt in town?"

He sighed, but didn't answer. Blaine just ran his fingers through Rachel's hair. "When I'm with you… I feel good, Rachel. It's like I was with him. Don't misunderstand me, it's just… he made me feel secure, like I would always have someone I could rely on. And you do the same thing."

One of those moments where you didn't know if you felt offended, flattered or just like you were someone else's sloppy seconds. And then Rachel asked the question she had been most afraid of since she'd been asked to pick a song for her memorial and one of her solos wasn't an option. "Blaine, can you really put aside the whole gay thing?"

Blaine bit his bottom lip, took another deep breath and answered. "That's one of the many things I don't know."

"Nice save." Rachel smiled slightly and got up off the couch. "I really like you, Blaine." She peeled off her Snuggie and stood there, looking Blaine in the eye.

Blaine stood up and held Rachel's hands. "Promise me that we won't ever break up." He chuckled when he notice how weird that had sounded. "As friends."

"I promise you, Blaine Warbler, that no matter what you say and no matter how gay you are, I won't break up with you. Ever." Rachel wrapped her arms around Blaine's neck as he wrapped his around her waist.

"I love you so much, Rachel Berry." He whispered.

Someone knocked on Rachel's door. They let go on the hug. "Place your bets," Rachel said playfully.

Blaine rolled his eyes and answered. "100 bucks on Kurt. Just a hunch." He teased back. He put his shoes on again and got ready for his ex boyfriend. "As soon as we start…"

Rachel smiled back at Blaine and opened the door. "Oh my God." Her jaw dropped to the floor when she saw who was standing on her doorstep.

* * *

**I hope you notice the irony of Tina not even having a chapter of her own. By the way, thank you so much for reading, I hope you're all enjoying the fic.**


	9. Finn

**This is the saddest thing I've ever written, so... enjoy it (if you can).**

* * *

**9. Finn**

"Hey."

Rachel slammed the door in Finn's face thoughtlessly. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." She returned to Blaine. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God."

Blaine cupped her face with his both hands. "What's wrong? Who is it?" Finn kept knocking on the door.

She was paralyzed, unable to say anything.

Finn knocked harder. "Rachel! Open the door!"

Blaine's eyes shot wide. "Oh my God!" He joined Rachel. "Finn?!" His face turned ghost-white.

"Rach!"

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do!" she kept repeating over and over again.

Blaine was freaking out as well. "He can't find me here. He's… Oh my God." He made a pause. "Did you call him?"

"Yes, Blaine, I'm used to calling ex boyfriends while I'm trying to get back on my feet just to slam my door in their faces."

"Rachel, open the door, please!" Finn kept knocking.

"I have to open."

"Oh my God… Okay, I'll hide in your basement until he leaves. Okay? Okay? Rachel, tell me it's okay!" Blaine was practically on his nerves.

Rachel nodded and she waited for Blaine to close the basement door to open the one that separated her and Finn.

"Hello." She let him in.

Finn chuckled. "What was that for?" He came in and sat on the couch. Then he frowned. "It's… warm. Are you busy?"

"Me? No! Why? Why do you ask? I am not busy. So bored. You see?" She pointed to the TV. "Funny Girl. I'm all alone. All by myself," she hummed.

The boy didn't buy that, but he let her get away with it. "I… I didn't know you'd come back."

Rachel kept walking up and down the living room. "Yeah… I… did it." She had never felt that nervous. Her hands were shaking. Her voice was trembling. And she pulled her hair out a few times.

Finn held her hand, pulling her down on the couch. "Rach, calm down." He rubbed her back, trying to make Rachel relax. "Why didn't you tell me that you were coming back?" he asked after a pause.

She took a deep breath, finally ready to face that so long-awaited conversation. "I chose to come back, Finn. It wasn't right for me to force you to come back too. If you wanted to come back, you'd have done it before."

"The last thing I expected to find out was that you had left New York."

"I am full of surprises, Finny. You didn't choose the predictable girl," Rachel teased.

Finn chuckled. "And I thought I knew you pretty well."

"Yeah. We took so many things for granted… when we shouldn't."

Then there was a deathly silence. Rachel knew that she made it wrong. She couldn't deny that not telling him about her comeback was an epic fail. And Finn felt so guilty… He could have had it all with Rachel. But he didn't get the subtle message Rachel sent him during their last conversation.

"If I had known that you were coming back, I would have come back too."

Rachel didn't need to hear anything else. In her mind, she was jumping over clouds. Adrenaline rushing through her veins. Her heart racing. Her… The love of her life was finally back.

"But you're here, and that's all that matters." She held Finn's hand.

Finn put it away and stood up. Now he was the one who was nervous. "I really should be going."

Rachel blinked a couple times. "You what? What… Are you okay?" So close. She felt so close.

He just walked out the door, without a word.

* * *

Finn drove home as fast as he could. No, he couldn't stay at Rachel's any longer. What was he doing anyway? He couldn't watch her get all committed again. He pulled up in the driveway of his house. "I'm back!" he said when he came in. He walked into the kitchen, where Kurt was.

"How did she react?" he asked Finn.

"I didn't tell her."

"Then what happened?"

"Blaine was there." Finn stopped when he saw Kurt's face. "I didn't see him, but you know Rachel. She can't hide something like that."

"And what are you gonna do?" Kurt arched his eyebrows.

"Kurt, face it, if they like each other…" Finn's face saddened. "…it's their choice. Not mine, not yours. I won't get between them."

Hummel hugged the taller boy. Finn started crying. "I fucked it up. I fucked it up so badly." He tightened the hug.

Finn's head was a mess. He found out everything thirty hours ago. He didn't lie to Rachel. If he had known that she was back before, he would have come back right then.

"But you're here to make things right, Finn."

He shook his head and pulled back. "No. I'm not." Finn dried off the tears on his face. "I already did the train station day. I just… lost a train I didn't see coming."

Finn walked upstairs and closed the door of his room. He lay on his bed and closed his eyes, letting every single tear out of his heart.

He started hitting his head against the wall. "Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!" He stopped when he saw a read stain on the white paint. There was a trickle of blood running down his forehead. But he didn't care, because no pain could compare to the heartbreak that was tearing him apart.

"Lima Loser, in every single way."

_[Run – Leona Lewis]_

_Finn:_  
_I'll sing it one last time for you,_  
_then we really have to go._  
_You've been the only thing that's right_  
_in all I've done._

_And I can barely look at you,_  
_but every single time I do_  
_I know we'll make it anywhere_  
_away from here._

He pictured himself back in Rachel's living room. Saying all the things he wanted to say. Fighting for a love he once had and once let go.

_Light up, light up,_  
_as if you have a choice._

He cupped her face, looking into her eyes.

_Even if you cannot hear my voice,_  
_I'll be right beside you dear._

Both of them crying like children. What were they? Grown-ups? Someone who can't face their feelings can't call themselves that.

_Louder, louder,_  
_and we'll run for our lives._  
_I can hardly speak. I understand_  
_why you can't raise your voice to say._

_To think I might not see those eyes._

"The most beautiful eyes I've ever seen," he thought.

_Makes it so hard not to cry._

"Cry my guts out, because I lost you one more time."

_And as we say our long goodbyes._  
_I nearly do._

_Rachel:_  
_Um. Oh._

_Finn and Rachel:_  
_Light up, light up,_  
_as if you have a choice._  
_Even if you cannot hear my voice,_  
_I'll be right beside you, dear._  
_Oh._

_Louder, louder,_  
_and we'll run for our lives._  
_I can hardly speak. I understand_  
_why you can't raise your voice to say._

Finn could hear Rachel belting even though he was making everything up. Her voice… he just needed to hear her sing one last time. One last goodbye.

_Rachel with Finn backing up:_  
_Light up, light up,_  
_as if you have a choice._  
_Even if you cannot hear my voice,_  
_I'll be right beside you, dear._

_Louder, louder,_  
_and we'll run for our lives._  
_I can hardly speak. I understand_  
_why you can't raise your voice to say._

"Why I can't raise my voice to say that I love you so much." He whispered in her ear.

Kurt knocked on Finn's door and came in. "And why the hell don't you sing that to her instead of keeping this damn song on repeat?" He wiped off the tears that had formed on his cheeks.

They heard the door open downstairs. "That must be Dad." Kurt went to help him unload the groceries out of the car.

Finn looked into the mirror. His red eyes blew the whistle of the pity party he just had in his room. Anyway, he walked down to help Burt too.

"Look who's here." Kurt warned him while his brother was walking into the hall.

"Hey," Finn said before kissing his girlfriend hello.

Though he tried not to make eye contact with her, Quinn asked: "Have you been crying?"


	10. Sam

**10. Sam**

Sam Evans loved Mondays. Most usual thing about a teenager? Maybe not. But working every weekend in a strip club wasn't very usual either. He spent the whole summer working a double shift there, so his smile was the brightest one among the other kids at McKinley.

Things at home weren't as great as they were supposed to be. Everybody knows that crisis strike back when you think you're getting back on your feet. Sam didn't complain even once. What was the use? He and his family stood together and Sam danced his butt off (literally) from June to September.

Every time he was in Glee Club and watched his friends bitching about their "life-ruining dramas", he couldn't help but laugh. His girlfriend had flown to Los Angeles, his friends were out of Lima too… The only company he could count with was his family and that creepy lady that offered him ten thousand bucks to "take off his flower". There was no way that he would have accepted getting into bed with a woman whose boobs seemed to act like an emergency pair of legs.

But that didn't matter anymore. It was Monday again and he could keep holding on to his seventeen.

"Hey!" Sam sat on his usual front row chair in the choir room, which was surprisingly empty. "It looks like the recruiting numbers didn't work out as well as we thought." There were only Rory, Joe, Artie, Sugar, Sebastian, Brittany and Blaine. "Actually it looks like we've even lost members."

Then Rachel came. She stood on the doorstep for a moment staring at Blaine, who looked away quickly. They weren't mad at each other, it was just incredibly awkward.

* * *

"So… do you want to talk about it?" Blaine asked as he walked out of Rachel's basement.

She shook her head slowly while arching her eyebrows.

"Do you want me to stay so that we can cuddle up?"

Her answer kept being the same.

"Do you want me to go?"

Rachel nodded with her eyes wide open, fixed on the paused scene of Funny Girl.

* * *

Then Santana walked into the choir room. Word spread about the defined as "the most epic bitch-slapping ever happened between the walls of William McKinley High School", so Santana's visit wasn't a surprise.

"Hello, Santana!" Will hugged her hello. "It's so nice to see you again, but no violence, please," he chuckled.

Santana laughed as well. "Don't worry, Mr. Shue, Berry's safe." She smiled at her and sat down next to her girlfriend.

"And yeah, please, take a sit, be our guest," Will said ironically.

Brittany and Santana held hands, intertwining their fingers. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that, I'm not a guest." She handed the teacher a paper.

"What is this, Santana?"

"My class schedule. As you might see, Spanish and Glee Club."

Everybody turned their heads to look at Santana. Some of them frowned; others clapped as she walked to the middle of the room.

"Okay, brief explanation. You all smell like sexual unhingement. The minute I came back I saw you were in heat to half of the student body. Seriously? Burlesque? You are so lost you can't even choose Lady Marmalade. Truly disappointed."

All the girls looked at each other, kinda offended, except for Brittany, who was cheering her girlfriend as if she wasn't an implied part of that number.

"Whatever," Santana carried on. "My dear Brittany told me about your shortage of personnel, and she knows when to say these things. I love it when you bring up things like this at post-coitus," she said to Brittany.

"Hot," Artie and Sebastian said in unison. They both looked at each other. "You are gross," they both replied as well.

"As I was saying, Mr. Shue, you have your eleventh star, if we count everyone in this room. And yes, this taunt goes to you, Merkat Criminal." Santana sat back as she gave Sebastian one of her typical hate looks.

Will resumed his class, or tried to start it off. "With Santana we are only one member short, so let's hope that we have at least one audition today." He made a pause. "And now that we are all here…"

"Mr. Shue, Tina's not here yet," Artie pointed out.

And they totally forgot about her, again.

* * *

Tina called them all to the auditorium. All the lights were out. There was just a spotlight that illuminated the center of the stage, where she was standing.

"Hey, she-Chang, I didn't know you had a phone number." Sugar teased as they took a seat.

"I am not very used to forcing everyone to listen to me. You know, I'm not that kind of self-centered, tacky and annoying person, but it seems to be the only way for me to get some attention around here. Well, that and getting a world record on cheating and breaking relationships inexplicably. So, I've been working on a song with which I want to show you that I deserve our Sectionals solo. I hope you enjoy it and keep me in mind, no matter how many times Mrs. Berry makes us go through her unbearable solos, duets and other musical tortures."

The Tina-formation was complete. She spitted out her whole monologue in less than half a minute. Her lung capacity had increased during the summer along with her self-determination. Everybody was speechless, surely because all the speech had already been said.

"And I almost forgot to say that I couldn't have done this without my dear friend Kurt Hummel. We are survivors, honey."

They all turned their heads to the back of the auditorium, where Kurt was leaning against the wall. The reactions were pretty disparate. Brittany smiled to her unicorn, Sebastian burst into laughter, Rachel tried not to show any reaction and Blaine… Blaine didn't look back. No, he didn't want to look at him.

Then the music started.

_[Without you – Mariah Carey]_

_Tina:_  
_No I can't forget this evening_  
_or your face as you were leaving._  
_But I guess that's just the way the story goes._

_You always smile, but in your eyes_  
_your sorrow shows._  
_Yes, it shows._

_No, I can't forget tomorrow_  
_when I think of all my sorrow._  
_When I had you there but then I let you go._

_And now it's only fair that I should let you know_  
_what you should know._

_I can't live_  
_if living is without you._  
_I can't live._  
_I can't give anymore._

_I can't live_  
_if living is without you._  
_I can't give._  
_I can't give anymore._

Tina moved out of the spotlight, and everybody waited for Kurt to start singing, but no, he didn't sing at all. Mercedes was standing on the doorstep on one side of the auditorium. She made her way to the stage as she sang.

_Mercedes with Tina:_  
_Well, I can't forget this evening_  
_or your face as you were leaving._  
_But I guess that's just the way the story goes._

_Mercedes:_  
_You always smile, but in your eyes_  
_your sorrow shows._  
_Yes, it shows._

_Mercedes and Tina:_  
_I can't live_  
_if living is without you._  
_I can't live._  
_I can't give anymore._

_I can't live_

_Tina:_  
_if living is without you._  
_I can't live._  
_I can't give anymore._

_(Mercedes:_  
_No, can't live._  
_No, I can't live.)_

_Tina:_  
_No, no, no, no, I!_  
_I can't live!_

_(Mercedes:_  
_No, can't live._  
_No, I can't live.)_

_Tina:_  
_If living is without you._  
_I can't live._  
_I can't give anymore._

"Mrs. Mercedes Jones!" Tina shouted, letting her receive every single applause.

* * *

Back in the choir room, Mr. Shue was standing between Kurt and Mercedes. William sat on the piano. "Tell us everything about your brand new lives."

"Well… I am recording my first album. With my dear Mariah," Mercedes began. "And Christina, and… Oh! My duet with Adele is epic."

"But Adele is on maternity leave…" Artie interrupted.

"Not for me, honey. Not for me."

Mercedes was and looked outstanding. She had lost a lot of weight, with her hair and her nails just done… LA was really doing her some good. And Sam definitely could tell.

"And I here I am, back to my hometown because I don't want to turn my back on my old life even though the flashes of the paparazzi might blind me."

Santana and Rachel looked at each other. "So now you are the new it-girl in Los Angeles?" the first one asked. "Oh my God, are you telling us that Trouty uploads a video of yours on YouTube and five months later you're hobnobbing with the jet-set? C'mon, Wheezy, please."

Will could smell fight up to sixty feet away, so he decided that changing the subject was a better option than letting Mercedes rub her life of early success in her friend's faces. "And what about you, Kurt?"

Kurt spent the last five minutes staring at Blaine, though he didn't look at him even once. "What about me? I'm in love with New York. The best boyfriend I could ever have had. NYADA is just… amazing".

He might have wanted Blaine back, but all the pain in his heart had to get out somehow.

"Yes?" Blaine stood up, full of rage. He looked at Kurt for the first time. His eyes were piercing his ex boyfriend's. "Then I don't know why you left him and came back to Lima."

Thermometers froze, the Sun hid and they heard a clap of thunder.

"Rory, don't play the drums now, please." Will decided to intervene. "Boys, maybe you want to wash your dirty laundry at…"

"No, thank you, Mr. Shue," Blaine interrupted him. "There is no dirty laundry to wash since what you've done."

"What I've done?" Kurt quoted outraged. "I didn't do anything since the day you left me!"

Santana whispered in Brittany's ear, "You don't know how many days I've been waiting for this moment. And trust me, it will be worth it. He has even rehearsed it."

"Don't you dare play the victim card on me, Kurt."

"Of course, I have no right to do that, because you are the one who has suffered the most! She must be such a bad company then."

"I'd better go." Rachel stood up and tried to walk out of the choir room.

"You called Finn!" Blaine sentenced. And then Rachel stopped and turned around.

"You what?!" she exclaimed.

Will insisted, "Seriously, boys, you should take it…"

"No!" the three of them shouted.

Rachel walked towards Kurt. "Did you call Finn?" She didn't get an answer, so she asked again. "Did you call Finn, Kurt?"

"I'm loving this," Sebastian said.

The moment Kurt nodded he got harshly slapped in the face. Silence. One long minute of cold and dark silence.

"You called me "the same selfish wannabe-diva that you met four years ago" and then five minutes later you phoned your brother to ask him to come back and distract me like a dog with a bone so you could get Blaine back. You are unbelievable." Rachel stormed out of the class.

"I could have expected it from anyone but you." Blaine looked down. It even hurt to see him. There was betrayal in the air. So much betrayal that he couldn't even stand it. "I'm not a thing you can own. Come back to your place in the world, because there's nothing else left for you here." And he followed Rachel.

Santana stood up and took her roommate to the bathroom. "You couldn't let an expert handle this, right?"

Everybody started looking at each other. "It's so nice to see you, Mercedes," Sam said with a heartwarming smile on his face.


	11. Quinn

**11. Quinn**

"My name is Lucy Quinn Fabray, and I am a woman in love," she thought as she did her hair in front of the mirror. She had let it grow down to her mid back. "And I am back."

She got ready for her walk with Finn. She had missed Lima. Her friends, her family… her life. Her old life. Now she was a college girl. Wiser, more mature… She was not the girl she once was. Quinn let her old selfish childish self die, but she held on to a part of that Quinn. The man who was knocking on his own room door.

"Babe, are you ready?" Finn asked from the hallway.

Quinn opened the door and pulled her boyfriend in, holding his hand. "Zip me up," she said as she turned around.

Finn pulled the zip of Quinn's summer dress up. He leaned in and whispered in her ear: "You're so beautiful." He wrapped his arms around Quinn's waist.

Quinn smiled widely. She rocked her hips and held Finn's arms as he hugged her. "Can I ask you something, love?"

"Yeah, sure." Finn nodded, resting his chin on Quinn's head.

Quinn stared at a picture on Finn's desk. "Are you planning on keeping her face in your room forever?"

Rachel's image still had a special place on Finn's room, between his father's and a group photograph they took the day they won Sectionals in 2009.

The boy couldn't answer. He didn't want to piss Quinn off, but he didn't want to lie either. He had a strict rule: never, ever lie. He knew her girlfriend wasn't over the whole Rachel thing. And Finn… Finn wasn't over her either. How could he? It hadn't even been two months since he took his ring off his finger. Everything was… awkward back in Lima.

Quinn pulled the picture down and turned to face his boyfriend. "Hey, it's okay, you just need another one. We can go to that photo booth near the park." She smiled and kissed Finn on the lips.

"Yeah, that would be awesome." Finn threw a fake smile back at Quinn.

"Let me go to the bathroom."

She sat on the closed toilet and stared at the mirror. She took a deep breath. "What the fuck are you doing, Quinn? Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Do not freak out. You took a huge risk when you let him come home, but it was the right thing. It's Finn, you love him. He loves you. You have nothing to be afraid of. Not even Berry. She had her chance. Her two chances. She can't steal him from you again. You. Won't. Let. Her," she thought.

Quinn looked into her own eyes and gave herself a wide reassuring smile. "Coming!"

_[Lovefool – The Cardigans]_

_Quinn:_  
_Dear, I fear we're facing a problem._  
_You love me no longer, I know._  
_And maybe there is nothing that I can do_  
_to make you do._

_Mama tells me I shouldn't bother,_  
_that I ought to stick to another man._  
_A man that surely deserves me_  
_But I think you do._

She pictured the old times. Santana and Brittany right behind her backing her up.

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_So I cry, and I pray and I beg._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Love me, love me._

_Quinn:_  
_Say that you love me._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Fool me, fool me._

_Quinn:_  
_Go on and fool me._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Love me, love me._

_Quinn:_  
_Pretend that you love me._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Leave me, leave me._

_Quinn:_  
_Just say that you need me._  
_So I cry and I beg for you too._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Love me, love me._

_Quinn:_  
_Say that you love me._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Leave me, leave me._

_Quinn:_  
_Just say that you need me._  
_I can't care 'bout anything but you._

Quinn came out of the bathroom, followed by Brittany and Santana, inexplicably still with their tight ponytails and in their Cheerios uniform.

_Quinn, singing it in Finn's ear:_  
_Lately I have desperately pondered._  
_Spent my nights awake and I wonder_  
_what I could have done in another way_  
_to make you stay._

She started dancing around him, suddenly in her Cheerio uniform too. Everything was very 2010 in that moment.

_Quinn:  
Reason will not lead to solution._  
_I will end up lost in confusion._  
_I don't care if you really care,_  
_as long as you don't go._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_So I cry, I pray, and I beg._

_Love me, love me._

_Quinn:_  
_Say that you love me._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Fool me, fool me._

_Quinn:_  
_Go on and fool me._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Love me, love me._

_Quinn:_  
_Pretend that you love me._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Leave me, leave me._

_Quinn:_  
_Just say that you need me._  
_So I cry and I beg for you too._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Love me, love me._

_Quinn:_  
_Say that you love me._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Leave me, leave me._

_Quinn:_  
_Just say that you need me._  
_I can't care 'bout anything but you._

_Quinn with Brittany and Santana:_  
_Anything but you..._

_Brittany and Santana (Quinn):_  
_Love me, love me. (Say that you love me)_  
_Fool me, fool me. (Go on and fool me)_  
_Love me, love me. (I know that you need me)_

_Quinn:_  
_I can't care 'bout anything but you._

"What are you humming, honey?" Finn called as he knocked on the door.

Quinn came back to Earth. She blinked a couple times and she found herself standing in front of the mirror. She opened the door and kissed Finn. "I love you, okay?" She smiled into the kiss.

* * *

It was Tuesday, so Breadstix wasn't very crowded. Though Finn didn't want to take any chance of running into Rachel (obviously he didn't tell Quinn that), his girlfriend took the lead that night. When Quinn Fabray wanted to collect some memories, she collected some memories.

"I missed this place," she said while holding Finn's hand. She really loved being back there with a man of her own. A man whose hand she could stroke with her thumb. A man she could look right into the eye before kissing him without feeling remorse for being pregnant with his best friend or because she cheated on him with… Well, basically she just had a tendency to cheat, so that was all.

Finn was focused on his spaghetti when two figures cast their shadows over their dinner. He looked up too late, because Quinn was already screaming the loudest OMG ever.

Once he raised his head, he saw his girlfriend with her arms wrapped around Santana and Brittany's necks. "My girls! I've missed you so much!" She planted one big kiss on their cheeks before sitting back. "Join us! We have lots and lots of catching up to do."

"Sure we have." Santana smiled devilishy while she sat next to Finn. Brittany sat in front of her girlfriend, both blondes together. "Well, you are not gonna give me a hug or what, Finny H?" Santana hugged the tall boy and whispered in his ear. "We are gonna have some much fun tonight, Chubby."

"You look so… perfect together." Quinn's smile was bright. "But, Santana, what are you doing here? I thought you were in New York with Kurt."

"I was, but I got tired of never being called back after 50 auditions. I even tried The Vagina Monologues." She made a pause. "And I missed this young lady you have on your left, so… I made a Berry."

The four of them laughed. Well, Finn and Quinn mostly faked it, but they knew Santana's sharp comments.

"But," Santana carried on. "I really have to ask you something that really shocked me: What are you doing here? And: What are you doing here together?"

"Well, Kurt called Finn, and since he was in Lima too, we decided to come."

"And aren't you supposed to be in college?" Santana kept asking.

"You know what's funny? There are one hundred cute blondes there. Nobody will miss me if I skip a week," she answered with a slight giggle.

Brittany smiled widely. "I'm gonna rock," she said in excitement.

"But besides your week off and your needy brother-in-law… can anyone tell me when you two got back together?"

Quinn grinned proudly. She held Finn's hand across the table. Before she began to talk, Finn interrupted his girlfriend.

"I didn't stay in the Army for more than a week. That wasn't my thing. Too many push-ups and that stuff. They tried to kill me without guns, which is kinda lame. So I quit and went to Cali with Puck. He asked me to stay at his place for the summer. So in the middle of my spiritual retreat…"

"…I came to pay a visit to Noah. We broke into one of the houses where Puck works, and while we were remembering the old times in a Jacuzzi… we hit it off," she finished Finn's statement. And then, they kissed.

Santana kicked Brittany under the table, with her grossed-out face still on.

"Finn, I gotta go to the restroom. You wanna come?" Brittany asked.

"Britt, we use different restrooms, that's not how this thing works," he answered.

Brittany's girlfriend stood up in order to let Finn stand up as well. "Come on, Hudson, don't leave her unaccompanied in this dangerous, dangerous neighborhood."

"She just has to go to the bathroom." Finn frowned.

"Britt can't pee here. Last buffet night, we caught a lady hiding food between her tires of fat. She's been having nightmares about a meatball being sodomized by several cheese sticks."

"Just walk me to the dumpster, it's my safe place," Brittany said before walking out of the restaurant with Finn's glass in her hand.

Once they were gone, Santana stopped faking happiness for the couple. "Okay, what the fuck are all of you playing?"

"Excuse me?" Quinn asked, not following.

"You go to California because you want Puckerman back and the next thing I find out is that you're having dinner with his best friend, a.k.a. your boyfriend, a.k.a. your ex boyfriend, then your boyfriend again…" Santana didn't know what she was saying. "Whatever. Quinn, how many times are you gonna go through this?!"

Quinn looked into Santana's eyes. "Finn and I were meant to each other in the first place. You know it. I know it. He knows it. And she knows it too," she said stressing out that last subject.

"Are you telling me that this is not another revenge of yours?"

"Oh God, Santana, I made things right with everyone last year. I'm done with the whole plotting and scheming. Yes, what I had in mind when I was on the plane to Los Angeles was not the same I was feeling on the plane back. So what? What if I saw a different Finn? What if both of us are more mature and…"

"Mentally stabilized?" Santana interrupted. "Don't you see it? Finn coming back to see a brother that's already in a train to New York? And you're staying the entire week?! You can't work this out." She held her friend's hand in an attempt to make her reason.

Quinn started crying. "Why do you think I'm here? There's not a moment in the day when I can let him on his own. Because I know that when that moment arrives, he'll fetch that little…" she didn't find the words.

Santana sat next to her friend and hugged her. "I love you, Quinn. You know it, together till the end, but I can't let you go all the way with this."

"Are you with me or against me?"

"I can't support you with this, Q."

Quinn pulled back, took a sip of her soda and sighed. "I know everything. And now more than ever I have faith on me and Finn. She has her new toy, so…" Quinn tried to reassure herself, but in the end she knew that she bare stood a chance against a Finn-Rachel meeting.

"Her gay toy? Does anyone give a crap for them?" Santana chuckled and tried to make things less rough between them. "Rachel knows Finn's here. But she doesn't know that you are with him. I'm kinda bonding with her, but… if you really think that you can take Finn to New Haven and build your magical life of rainbows and white knights together… just tell her."

"Joe and his priest manners and the whole Seal of Confession thing," Quinn smirked. "Maybe I should give Blaine and Rachel my blessing and break the news for them."

Santana smiled at her friend. "Okay, but don't be too harsh on her. Everybody is very fucked up this year. Don't crush her heart and eat it or throw it to the flaming flames of the hell you came out of."

"Don't worry, I'll just sing Single ladies and… so put your hands up." After Quinn quoted Beyoncé's song, she showed her the offensively big rock on the engagement right that was wrapping her middle finger. "It'll do all the work." She winked an eye to a freaked-out Santana.


	12. Kurt II

**12. Kurt (II)  
**

"What are you doing here?" Blaine asked when he opened the door.

Kurt was standing right in front of him. His head low, his eyes red. "I wanted to apologize." Blaine tried to close the door, but Kurt put his foot in its way. "Please. Just… listen to me."

"Go away." He didn't look at his ex boyfriend. He couldn't.

"I did it…"

"I know why you did it."

Kurt raised his head, looking for Blaine's eyes. His foot still between the door and the frame. "Blaine, please." Tears started running down his cheeks.

"You had no right." Blaine pulled back and let Kurt in. He sat on the couch, thinking that the sooner they took everything out, the sooner Kurt would go away. He rested his head in his hands, looking at the floor.

Kurt walked in and closed the door behind him. He leaned on it, trying his best not to slide down and collapse. "I'm leaving tonight. It won't take too long. Finn and Quinn will pick me up when they come back from Breadstix."

"Don't beat around the bush, Kurt. Go straight to the point. I don't have the time or the pleasure to say that I feel like having this conversation."

"I did it for love." He kept crying.

Blaine put his head between his knees. "You have to move on. We can't hold on to this and we definitely can't rerun this scene every time you leave Lima, because it's not healthy."

Kurt started walking towards Blaine. "I came here for… closure."

The shorter boy took a deep breath and finally looked up. "We had it! I fucking grew some balls to let you go! And I felt like shit, and every single time I hear your name it comes back to me! I don't want to spend my life in that day. This is not gonna be a constant break up because we already broke up! There's nothing else for us to do together." Blaine's hands were shaking after that harsh statement.

"We didn't break up. You did." Kurt sat on the coffee table, right in front of Blaine. "And… I… I just wanted to see you one last time."

Blaine didn't answer. What could he answer to that? Kurt was ripping his heart out of his chest and giving it to him on a silver platter. "How are you doing in New York? Everything alright?"

"Wonderful." He let a smile draw on his face. "There's no need to ask you the same."

"I don't want to hate or… storm out of the rooms you're in… or shut doors in your face, Kurt." Blaine held his hand. "I never wanted this to be a war with you playing with Finn and Rachel and…"

Kurt squeezed Blaine's hand. "Let's not talk about that, okay?"

"How can we not talk about them? We can't sweep the shit under the rug and think that everything is fine, because it is not."

They fell silent for a while, feeling each other's hands.

"Do you love her?" Kurt felt claws tearing his skin off his body. But he was dying to know if he had lost the love of his life forever.

Those questions. Blaine hated them. "Do I love her?" he thought. "Could I ever love someone who is in love with the brother of the man I should love? Am I the one who fucked everything up? Can anyone handle this for me? Because I fucking can't."

"No."

Kurt leaned forward to kiss Blaine, but he pulled back.

"No," Blaine said again.

The crushed-hearted boy stood up as he blushed as hell. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Blaine hugged him tight, feeling Kurt's tears fall on his shoulder. "Give me a year. Give us a year. And if by next September when I go to New York we haven't found any other people, then kiss me. But don't do this to us now, because we don't need another heartache."

Kurt smiled and let go of the hug, stepping back while holding Blaine's hands. "If I didn't have to go back to New York..." he got ready for another breath-taking question, "…would you kiss me?"

Blaine nodded, walking Kurt to the door. "But if I kiss you tonight, we wouldn't fix anything." He smiled, feeling… in peace? The day Blaine Anderson put his head and his heart in order, he'd get a medal or at least a statue in the middle of the Times Square.

Kurt walked out when Finn honked the horn. Blaine looked at Finn's car. "Did you tell me earlier that Finn and Quinn were picking you up? Finn and Quinn? I mean… Quinn?" Blaine asked when he saw the blond head in the passenger's seat.

"Long story," Kurt killed the conversation. He kissed Blaine goodbye on his cheek. "Goodbye, Blaine."

"Take care of yourself." Blaine smiled, trying his best not to cry.

Kurt climbed into his brother's car as he watched his… friend close the door. Once in, he lay on the back seat, hiding his face in his hands.

"How did it go?" Quinn asked turning back to look at his soon-to-be brother-in-law.

"Let's just say it didn't go."

"Now it seems like you are about to take a leap into an abyss, but it really is jumping across a puddle," the tall boy said while stroking his brother's hand.

"It really is?" Kurt looked at Finn.

"Moving on is not that hard." Somehow he remembered his pact with himself. Not to lie? Ever? "Fuck the pact and fuck my morals," he thought. Blaine and Kurt's ultimate break up made him realize that he would have to fight Blaine in the race to… He shut off his mind. He didn't like thinking of Rachel when Quinn was around, just in case she could read him. He turned on the radio and drove to the airport.

_[Un-break my heart – Tony Braxton]_

When the song began, they didn't know if it was appropriate to let it play. "Do you want me turn it off?" Quinn knew so well what it felt like to be in those situations, under Rachel Berry's long shadow.

The devastated boy let himself drown in the music, feeling every single word as he was singing them to Blaine in front of his closed door.

_Kurt:_  
_Don't leave me in all this pain._  
_Don't leave me out in the rain._  
_Come back and bring back my smile._  
_Come and take these tears away._  
_I need your arms to hold me now. _  
_The nights are so unkind._  
_Bring back those nights when I held you beside me._

_Un-break my heart._  
_Say you'll love me again._  
_Undo this hurt you caused _  
_when you walked out the door _  
_and walked outta my life._  
_Un-cry these tears._  
_I cried so many nights._  
_Un-break my heart. _  
_My heart._

Blaine opened the door and let him in.

_Kurt:_  
_Take back that sad word good-bye._  
_Bring back the joy to my life._  
_Don't leave me here with these tears._  
_Come and kiss this pain away._  
_I can't forget the day you left._  
_Time is so unkind._  
_And life is so cruel without you here beside me. _

_Blaine and Kurt:  
Un-break my heart._  
_Say you'll love me again._  
_Undo this hurt you caused _  
_when you walked out the door _  
_and walked outta my life._  
_Un-cry these tears._  
_I cried so many nights._  
_Un-break my heart._

One last slow dance. One last time Kurt got Blaine's hands on his hips. One last time he got to kiss Blaine's lips. One last time, even though it never took place.

_Blaine:_  
_Don't leave me in all this pain._

_Kurt:_  
_Don't leave me out in the rain_

_Blaine and Kurt:_  
_Bring back the nights when I held you beside me._

_Un-break my heart._  
_Say you'll love me again._  
_Undo this hurt you caused_  
_when you walked out the door_  
_and walked outta my life._  
_Un-cry these tears._  
_I cried so many, many nights._  
_Un-break my..._

_Kurt:_  
_Un-break my heart, oh baby._  
_Come back and say you love me._  
_Un-break my heart, sweet darling._  
_Without you I just can't go on._

_Blaine:_  
_Say that you love me._  
_Say that you love me._  
_Come back._  
_Un-break my…_

_Kurt:_  
_Can't go on._

_Blaine:_  
_Say that you love me._  
_Say that you love me._  
_Come back._  
_Un-break my…_

* * *

"Come here." Finn dropped Kurt's bags on the ground and gave a huge hug to his brother. "Call me if you need anything, okay?"

"Thank you. For everything." Then Kurt leaned into the hug and whispered, "you do this right. I know you will, but… do it right. I didn't tell Blaine anything about you two anyway."

He moved to hug Quinn. "Don't do anything in my bedroom, okay, sis?" He chuckled as he walked to the gate. "See ya."

"Wait, I have to give you something." The blonde went through her purse and gave Kurt two pearl-color envelopes. "One's for you. The other is for your new man."

"I see you didn't have a lot of faith in me and Blaine." Kurt chuckled as he opened one of them.

"You can always mail it to him," Finn interceded.

Kurt read it out loud, his eyes widening at every word he said. "We, Quinn and Finn, invite you to share the celebration of our love next Saturday, September… Wait a minute, that's next Saturday." Kurt stopped when he realized that the date wasn't the big thing. "Oh God you're getting married this Saturday!" he shouted in the middle of the airport.

He got on the plane after 15 minutes of yays and I-need-to-be-your-bestman-and-if-I'm-not-we-are-not-family-anymores. Once on his sit, Kurt texted Finn. "You know weddings are my thing, but don't you even think for a second that I'm okay with it. XX. Your groomsman."


	13. Joe

**13. Joe**

"Have you ever felt so out of place that you don't even know where you are or what you're doing?"

Joe's first week and a half had been… how to explain it? Gray. Everybody there was having their ups and downs, their lights and their shadows, their new romances and the stinky corpses of their walking-dead past relationships. But what about Joe? His only friend was his first crush, and she was almost 600 miles away.

Nothing ever happened, just a duet and a few verses looking into each other's eyes. But it wasn't enough for a boy whose romantic/sexual/social experience was limited to the pajama parties he had thrown with his stuffed animals and biblical action figures when he was five. Actually, they kept going on until Joe grew his pubic hair, but that's something nobody needs to know, for his reputation's sake.

Spending the summer in a Christian camp didn't help him either. Last year he didn't made so many friends, and being totally isolated from the real world made him even more lonely that September.

"Excuse me, what did you say?"

Joe had resorted to Emma. He needed some serious guidance. His adaptation to studying in a public school wasn't too bad. He wasn't bullied, his grades didn't go down… his one and only problem was his social department.

"I asked you if you have ever felt so out of place that…" he repeated.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry," Emma interrupted him. Her head wasn't too focused. Her wedding was in two weeks and she, as usual, needed to have everything under control, which wasn't the case. At all. "Well… who hasn't at some time?"

She started going through her pamphlets, handing Joe a few. "'Newbie boy misses his toy'? In case you need help with your transition from the homeschooling…"

Joe shook his head in response. "Already over that."

"'Proud of who I am'?"

"Mrs. Pillsbury… I am not… gay."

"Oh." Emma was running out of ideas. "Any food disorder?"

He was starting to get tired of not being listened even by someone who was paid for it. "I don't have friends."

Emma smiled and put out the right pamphlet. "This is it: 'Loner detox – 12 easy steps'. I got the alcohol, the cocaine, the Blackberry and the Facebook edition, in case you need it."

"Mrs. Pillsbury, I don't need a handbook, I need… references. Don't public schools have some kind of students catalogue?"

"John, this is not an adoption agency. You have to go out there and find your BFF. It's not that complicated." Emma smiled widely, trying to get rid of a boy whose name she didn't even know.

Joe picked up his dignity from the floor and walked away. "Yeah, thank you so much, Mrs. Pillsbury."

He was going through his bag on his way to the choir room when he bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry, I was minding…" Then he looked up and found… "Quinn!"

Quinn wrapped his arms around Joe's neck, kissing him hello on his cheek. "What did I tell you about not paying attention while walking?" She chuckled. "It's okay, just tell me how you're doing."

Joe laughed foolishly, he couldn't be happier with Quinn's visit. "I talked to you yesterday. What… what are you doing here? Why didn't you tell me that you were coming?!"

"Because," Quinn started as she held Joe's hand to take him to the choir room, "my dear friend, that's what surprises are about."

When Joe and Quinn came into the classroom with their fingers intertwined everybody muttered.

"What the biggest fuck?!" Artie's words echoed in the silent room.

They quickly let go of each other's hands.. "Oh, no, no, no." Quinn laughed as she held her arms out.

Sam and Rachel went and hugged her. She hugged them back. "And you two should have called me more often. Actually, call me at all." She smiled while pulling back. "Anyway, how are you doing?"

"Here we go again," Tina said as she hugged Quinn hello.

"Yes, here we go again," Rachel spitted. "I was in New York, but then Finn and I…"

Quinn interrupted her with a light chuckle. "I know, silly." She stuck her tongue out. "It was just a polite question. Anyway, sit down, there's something I need to tell all of you."

"Go to the bathroom," Blaine whispered in Rachel's ear when she sat next to him.

"What?" she answered.

"You don't want to be here when everything happens."

"Blaine, just tell what's happening and stop talking like in an end-of -days movie."

The former Warbler was having a hunch, but it was too late. Finn walked into the choir room welcomed with cheers and ovations. Every single person in the room joined the group hug started off by Rory, except for Quinn, Sebastian, Blaine, Rachel, Brittany and Santana. That last one turned to talk to Rachel. "You should really teach your boy to talk lower or obey him like I'm sure you do in bed. That's the only way you two have fun. M," she sang/quoted Rihanna's song.

Rachel frowned until it hurt. "What are you talking about?" She was figuring out where they were aiming at. And when she saw Quinn's evil look, everything made sense. "Quinn… is everything alright?" she asked as she walked closer to her… friend?

"Okay, okay, sit down and look under your chairs," Finn said as he tried to catch his breath after the tight, tight and long hug.

The whole gang sat and brought pearl-color envelopes from under their seats.

"Why is there a nude picture of me with a peanut on my crotch?" Sebastian asked when he opened the card.

"It's not a peanut, it's your dick and it has already been retweeted 1563 times." Finn looked down at his phone. "1564. Congrats."

"Classy revenge, love it," he replied back.

"Again. What the biggest even bigger than the one before FUCK?!" Artie exclaimed.

Ten pairs of eyes staring at Finn and Quinn who were wrapping their arms around each other's waists with great and shiny smiles on their faces.

_[Killing me softly with his song – Roberta Flack]_

_Rachel:_  
_Strumming my pain with his fingers._

_Joe and Rachel:_  
_Singing my life with his words._

_Joe and Rachel with New Directions backing up:_  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Telling my whole life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._

Rachel's eyes got filled with truly painful tears. A few fell on her pleated skirt, another bunch of them burned her eyes from the inside out. Joe just couldn't react. His happiest day since he got back to school turned into the day when his heart got trampled on the floor.

_Joe:_  
_I heard she sang a good song._  
_I heard she had a style._  
_And so I came to see her._

_To listen for a while_  
_And there she was this young girl._  
_A stranger to my eyes._

_Joe and Rachel:_  
_Strumming my pain with his fingers._  
_Singing my life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Telling my whole life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._

_Rachel:_  
_I felt all flushed with fever_  
_embarrassed by the crowd._  
_I felt he found my letters_  
_and read each one out loud._  
_I prayed that he would finish,_  
_but he just kept right on._

_Joe and Rachel:_  
_Strumming my pain with his fingers._  
_Singing my life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Telling my whole life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._

_Rachel:_  
_He sang as if he knew me_  
_in all my dark despair._  
_And then he looked right through me_  
_as if I wasn't there._  
_And he just kept on singing,_  
_singing clear and strong._

_Joe and Rachel with New Directions:_  
_Strumming my pain with his fingers._  
_Singing my life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Telling my whole life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._

_Rachel:_  
_Oh._

_Joe and Rachel:_  
_La la la la la la._  
_Oh._  
_La la la._  
_Na-ah-ah-ah._

_Strumming my pain with his fingers._  
_Singing my life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Telling my whole life with his words._  
_Killing me…_

_Joe with New Directions:_  
_She was strumming my pain._

_Rachel with New Directions:_  
_Yeah, he was singing my life._

_Joe and Rachel with New Directions:_  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Killing me softly with his song._  
_Telling my whole life with his words._  
_Killing me softly with his song._

Joe found himself staring at a crowd of students kissing and hugging the merry couple. His feelings were far away from happiness. A hole of emptiness away, to be more accurate. What were all those nights up on the phone about? It was all in his head or she just used him?

Finn looked for Rachel's eyes between the congratulations and the dudes-I-can't-believe-its. Everybody tossing his hair and all he could think about was the broken girl crying her heart out on her way out of the classroom. Finn could get rid of his friends and followed Rachel, who was already being followed by Blaine. Anyway Finn had to hurry up if he didn't want Quinn to find out about her absence. He didn't need her following him. Too conga-like for a sad/happy moment, depending on the beholder.

"Can you leave me alone with her for a moment, buddy?" Finn asked Blaine when he reached the short boy.

"Of course not." Blaine stood up in front of someone much taller than him, making him feel incredibly small and weak, but he grew a pair and faced him. "I left once, but I won't do it twice. You've fucked her enough, Finn."

"Who the hell do you think you are, Blaine?" Finn pushed him. "Get the fuck out of here. This is none of your business."

Blaine didn't push back. He stood there, looking into Finn's eyes. What was going on? "When did you start pushing people away to get what you aren't supposed to have?" He stepped forward, his head as high as his neck allowed him.

"Get out of my way, Kevin Costner. I'm not kidding."

"Come on, big boy. You've been waiting for this moment since last year. You and me, face to face. Break my nose; beat the shit out of me."

Things were getting a little reckless when Rachel walked out of the bathroom. "If you lay a hand on him you're dead to me, Finn Hudson," she warned with trembling voice.

* * *

Meanwhile in the choir room, everybody kept celebrating. When the kids finally calmed down, Quinn looked around and didn't find his fiancé. "You see? You've scared Finn away!" she laughed along with her friends. "In the meantime," Quinn sat on a stool, "I need some bridesmaids, and I've been told that I can find them here." She took another glance at the choir room, where all the girls were raising her hands. "Where's… where's Rachel?" Her eyes half closed, her heart raced and she started cursing deep down in her mind.

The moment Quinn began to head to the door, Santana stopped her, fully aware of what was about to happen. "Let me go find her while you tell these people every single detail, okay?" She pushed Quinn back to the middle of the choir room and ran angling for Finn and Rachel.

What she wasn't expecting to find was the scene she found: Blaine and Finn yelling at each other while Rachel cried standing still in the middle of the hallway. "What the fuck is going on here?" She didn't let them reply. "I don't care. You two," she pointed to the boys, "do you know what it's like to have your house on fire? I know, it happens too often in Lima Heights. But that's not my point. Get your lame asses back to the choir room as if it was on fire and you had to take your broke and sad family out of it. And if Quinn asks, you, Chubbers, were comforting McGellyGelly Bowties because he's very emotional after Kurt's visit and the whole wedding things is very touching."

"I'm not gonna cover this motherfuc…" Blaine tried to reply.

Santana put his lips back together. "If LucyFer finds out that his amorphous boyfriend is still chasing Berry, she's gonna eat your tiny lover's head, you get it, eyebrows?"

Both Finn and Blaine walked to the choir room without saying another word to each other.

"And you…" Santana walked towards Rachel. When she looked up and revealed her tomato-red eyes, the former head-of-bitches couldn't do anything but hug her. "Can you be a little bit more obvious? Because you are so close to breaking Tina's record of tears per square mile."

Rachel leaned into the hug. "Thank you," she whispered, her head on Santana's shoulder. "I… I…" She couldn't say a word. How could she when she couldn't even breathe?

Santana stepped back and dried Rachel's tears from her face. "You are going to chin up and not let Quinn know that you are totally shitted, okay?"

"You don't have to do this, Santana," Rachel said while she fixed her make-up.

"I have the feeling that if, and only if you and that dungeon troll come back together the natural order of human life and space will be restored. Call me crazy, call me romantic, call me maybe, whatever, but we know how this damn mess began."

Rachel smiled weakly. "And how are we supposed to accomplish that heroic duty?"

"Lima Heights style."

"I'm not good at physical confrontation, Santana."

"Lima Heights is not all about violence and extreme survival, it's about low-budget love too."


	14. Will

**14. Will**

William Schuester was late for his Glee class. He was not an unpunctual person, but searching for the Sectionals' setlist took him a little bit longer than he expected.

"Come on, girls, we have to get this started," he called Rachel and Santana when he saw them in the hallway, not knowing what he was about to find. Will arrived in the choir room in a hurry and stepped back when he almost ran into his favorite pupil. Finn hugged Will, and the teacher had to stand on his tiptoes. "Guys! What are you doing here?!" He smiled at the kids right after kissing Quinn hello. "What a surprise!"

"This is for you, Mr. Schue," the blonde said as he gave Will another invitation to their wedding.

Will's eyes widened with every word he read. "Oh…" He couldn't express happiness or disappointment, even though he was feeling both of them. "This Saturday? But…" Will chuckled trying to release some tension. He saw Finn's face and he knew that the tall kid was expecting more excitement from his mentor.

"We are keeping the whole story until the vows," Quinn intervened.

The teacher took Finn apart. "Finn, what about Rachel?" he whispered so nobody else could hear them.

Finn couldn't reply. What would he have said? That he loved her? That he made a mistake? That he's actually making the mistake of marrying Quinn and he hadn't got the guts to leave Quinn one more time? "Everything's okay," he answered before rejoining the crew.

Rachel and Santana sat on their chairs. "Sorry, Rachel was indisposed. Last night she tried to grow a couple inches taller by drinking an entire milk jug. Obviously that must kick out eventually," Santana excused both of them.

"Yeah, I…" Rachel couldn't finish the allusion to her imaginary diarrhea, but in spite of the embarrassment caused by Santana's idea, she had an alibi to run out of the class in case she broke down again.

"How is it that you hadn't told us that you were singing another one of your solos in the toilet, Berry?!" Tina said sarcastically.

"We have to start rehearsing, kids, so let's start our Sectionals' songs off," Will said. He turned to Finn and Quinn, who had sat in the front row, "what are the chances of any of you two taking any Spanish class in the afternoon?"

Everybody laughed. "Sorry, Mr. Shue, New Haven's still waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Hudson," Quinn answered laughing too.

Rachel saw both of them holding hands in her face, their rings brushing one against the other as they played with their intertwined fingers.

"Homicidal instincts?" Blaine asked her.

"We'll talk later, okay?" Rachel gave Blaine a kiss on his cheek and a very warm smile.

"As I was saying, we need to start working on our songs for Sectionals. And given the fact that we have our drummer man…" Finn sat behind the drums at Will's command, "he's gonna make the announcement of our soloists more… intense. So, Finn, whenever you're ready."

Finn started drum rolling, but Tina stood up and grabbed the drumsticks, pulling them out of Finn's hands. "And, if I may, Mr. Schue, I really hope that you took my performance into consideration."

"Which performance, Tina?" Will frowned.

Tina bawled and tossed the drumsticks against the wall. She kept yelling and having a tantrum for like five minutes in front of her friends' aghast faces.

"Tina, please, c…" Will tried to calm her down, but the volume of Tina's shouts was too loud, sharp and… indescribable.

"Is she speaking Chinese?" Sebastian asked while frowning.

Some of them swore that the scene developed in slow motion while "O fortuna" was playing. Music sheets flying across the choir room. Violins being smashed against the floor. Even Brad ended up with his glasses broken after Tinazilla hit him.

"Take her to the courtyard and let the helicopters handle it!" Brittany shouted standing on her seat. "I have tranquilizer darts in my locker, distract her with something and I'll get them." She pushed Joe against the raging Asian. "Let Tina eat her, that'll buy me a couple minutes." And then she ran out of the class.

Quinn helped Joe up. "Are you okay?" she asked kindly.

Joe pushed her hand away and stood up by himself. "Yeah, couldn't be better."

"YOU!" Tina shouted and pointed at Rachel. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" She threw herself trying to reach Berry's hair, but she missed and fell on a pile of chairs. She writhed in pain on the floor under the seats.

Rachel was petrified. "Did she just try to kill me?" She found herself in a corner behind Blaine, who was protecting her. "B-Blaine… you can…"

The boy blushed and let Rachel go as Finn laughed at him. "So Costner," he said.

It was awkward for a moment. Maybe Blaine overreacted, maybe Tina was ready to rip Rachel's throat out. "Maybe it was the most beautiful gesture someone's ever done for me," Rachel thought.

"Why don't you take her to the nursery?" Will asked to Sam and Rory. He had to blink a couple of time before digesting what just happened.

They, while carrying an unconscious Tina out, bumped into Brittany and a dart rifle, almost as tall as she was.

"Where the hell did you get that from?!" Quinn shouted hiding herself behind Finn.

Brittany frowned, not following why everybody was afraid of her gun. "Lord Tubbington was going through a phase and I needed some protection."

"And why do you bring this to school?" Will wondered while taking the rifle slowly from Brittany.

"Because my mom always tells me to have sex with protection, so… two birds with one stone."

Will kept blinking. "Okay, class dismissed, tomorrow we'll start with the songs."

Everybody left the choir room, but Santana. "Mr. Shue, can I ask you a favor?"

* * *

It was almost midnight when Blaine pulled his car up in the middle of the road, diverting the traffic. He put a few cones around it and opened the passenger door. "Are you ready?" he asked Rachel as he helped her out.

"Santana just texted me. She says that they have the other way closed off, so we'd better hurry up." She shut the door and kissed Blaine on his cheek. "You know I couldn't have done this without you, right?" She made a pause. "I love you."

He nodded and cupped Rachel's face. "I love you too. But we'll celebrate later, okay? Hurry up!" Blaine grabbed her hand and started walking quickly.

They joined Brittany, Santana and Sebastian. The three of them plus Blaine were dressed in black suits with black shirts. Will was setting the baffles when they came. Rachel winked an eye at him in appreciation of the help provided.

Rachel, in a white dress that shined under the streetlights, stood in the middle of the street, right in front of Finn's house. Her three friends and Sebastian positioned behind her.

"I don't know how much time we have till the police arrive, so we'd better get started," Will warned as he looked both ways. They'd closed the road so Rachel could sing in the middle of the street.

"Okay." Rachel took a deep breath, facing one of the hardest performances of her life. "I am ready." She grasped her pink crystal microphone and the song started.

_[Woman in love – Barbra Streisand]_

_Rachel:_  
_Life is a moment in space_  
_when the dream is gone._  
_It's a lonelier place._

_I kiss the morning goodbye,_  
_but down inside you know_  
_we never know why._

_The road is narrow and long_  
_when eyes meet eyes_  
_and the feeling is strong._

_I turn away from the wall._  
_I stumble and fall._  
_But I give you it all._

_Rachel with Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_I am a woman in love._  
_And I'd do anything_  
_to get you into my world_  
_and hold you within._

_Rachel:_  
_It's a right I defend._

_Rachel with Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Over and over again._

_Rachel:_  
_What do I do?_

Rachel saw a light that just got turned on in Finn's room. She felt her heart climbing up her throat, praying to every single God in the human mythology that Finn would be the one who pulled the curtains open.

_Rachel:_  
_With you eternally mine_  
_in love there is_  
_no measure of time._

And her prayers didn't fall on deaf ears.

_Rachel:_  
_We planned it all at the start._  
_That you and I_  
_live in each other's heart._

_We may be oceans away._  
_You feel my love._  
_I hear what you say._

_No truth is ever a lie._  
_I stumble and fall._  
_But I give you it all._

Her voice echoed in the whole street. There were a few neighbors that came out of their houses with lighters and candles on, waving them in the air.

_Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_I am a woman in love._  
_And I'd do anything_  
_to get you into my world_

_Rachel with Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_and hold you within._

_Rachel:_  
_It's a right I defend._

_Rachel with Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Over and over again._

_Rachel:_  
_What do I do?_  
_Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!_

_Rachel with Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_I am a woman in love._  
_And I'm talking to you._  
_You know how she feels. (Rachel: I know how you feel)_  
_What a woman can do._

_Rachel:_  
_It's a right I defend._

_Rachel with Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Over and over again._

_Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_I am a woman in love._

_Rachel with Blaine, Brittany, Santana and Sebastian:_  
_And I'd do anything_  
_to get you into my world_  
_and hold you within._

_Rachel:_  
_It's a right I defend_  
_over and over again!_

The whole neighborhood burst into applauses and ovations to Rachel, but, for once, she didn't care. The only hands she needed to be moving in that moment were Finn's through her hair, pulling her into a kiss. Nothing else mattered.

She started walking towards the house, very slowly. The light in Finn's room wasn't on any longer, so she waited for him to come out and… say/do whatever he wanted to say/do.

The black door opened and Finn walked outside meeting Rachel six steps away. "Longest six steps ever," according to the both of them.

"It was beautiful," Finn said in front of everyone's eyes.

Brittany and Santana were holding hands. Blaine was staring at the scene while Sebastian commented, "there are two options right here. A) You are the king of fools B) Your mother gave birth to the best friend ever. Let me know which one is correct."

It was true that there was a foolish smile on Blaine's face. He was in peace. He did it right. "A little of both."

Rachel felt a little bit awkward. "I've sung everything I had to say… the ball is kinda in your court." She looked into Finn's eyes and felt good. Everything that happened earlier that day was gone. Just a nightmare. Just a…

"Rach, I can't," and then Finn resurrected the nightmare.

She stepped back as she broke out into tears. "I…" Rachel turned around and ran back to the car.

"I LOVE YOU!" Finn shouted.

Her feet froze. In fact, she almost fell to the ground when she heard those three words. The impromptu audience gave Rachel a second round of applause. Rachel came back on her steps straight to Finn's lips, but he stopped her before their mouths collided.

"I can't, Rach."

"You keep saying that." The light in her eyes vanished once again. Why did she always have to lose everything good she had even if it only lasted ten seconds?

"Just know that I love you, okay? I do."

And with a sad smile and his eyes filled with tears, Finn came back into his house.

"This is not over, Finn Hudson, do you hear me?! This is not over!" Rachel yelled at the door she was hitting with all her might. "This is not over." She leaned on it and slid down to the floor.

Blaine knelt in front of her, cupping her face with his hands as he stroked her wet cheeks. Santana wrapped her arm around Rachel's shoulder and pulled her closer. And Will walked back to his car, feeling their sorrow in his heart too. Four years living in a teen telenovela but he hadn't got used to an old-fashioned Finchel drama.


	15. Puck

**15. Puck**

"Open up!" Noah Puckerman shouted at the third of the twenty-seven smacks he granted to the Hudson's front door. "Finn! Finn! Finn! FINN!"

"What the fuck, man?!" Finn said as he opened the door. He was just in a pair of old boxers, rubbing his eyes and trying to wake up. Once he finally could he spread his eyes open. "What the fuck, Puck?!" He hugged his bro the moment he realized he was the one who got him out of bed.

Puck patted Finn's back a few times before pulling back. "Okay, you're a sweaty sleeper." Both of them chuckled. "But that's not what I'm here for!" Then he slapped Finn with a pearl-color envelope in the face. "You have two seconds to give me a good reason for me not to shove this up your flat ass!" And he slapped him two more times.

"Dude! Stop!" Finn stepped back, trying to get rid of Puck's attacks. "What are you doing?" Finn's brain did need a few minutes to start off in the morning.

The mohawked one closed the door after him and sat on the couch. "It's easy." Puck balled up the invitation and threw it to Finn. "What the fuck is this? And it's not a _rhetortic_ question!"

"It's not a rhetoric question; it's an invitation to my wedding."

"I know that! I know how to read, you moron!"

"Then maybe it was a rhetoric question…"

Puck slapped him one more time. "You marrying Fabray?! Not cool, man!"

"Can you stop doing that and listen to me for a moment?!" Finn sat on the couch next to Puck once this one finished hitting Hudson. "Okay, what do you want to know?"

Puck twisted Finn's nipples. "HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID?!"

Finn squirmed and yelled while trying to push his friend's grip away without hurting himself even more. "Dude, fuck off!"

The both of them fell silent once Puck pulled his hands away. They sat still for a few minutes, thinking of what they were doing. It felt childish but… on the other hand… it looked serious as well. Was it just a play or were there more feelings involved?

"You can't do this to Rachel," Puck sentenced finally.

Finn's eyes were fixed on the carpet. He couldn't look Puck in the eye in that exact moment. "I can't do this to Rachel or I can't do this to you?"

Puck rested his head on his hands. What could he answer? "Dude, you know I love you, but…" He looked up. "What's the use of this shit?" Puck pointed to the ball of paper he had thrown Finn earlier.

"I don't even know why I did it." Finn threw his head back and closed his eyes. "I don't even know why I keep doing anything, man." He made a bitter pause. "It's like Pandora's box opened the day we graduated."

"Dude, I don't know who that Pandora chick is, but if she told you that this was a good idea, she's a total bitch."

Finn just laughed.

"Anyway. Dude, if you don't love her, you can't marry her. That's not right."

"Is it righter to dump her one more time?"

Puck stood up and headed to the first floor. "No. But that's what I came here for."

"Don't go upstairs. Don't tell her anything!"

"Let's end up with this charade." Puck ran upstairs, but Finn tackled him before he reached the seventh step. Both of them fell down. "Dude! You could have killed me! Thank God the mohawk saved me," Puck complained. "And now, if you let me go…"

"No," Finn said while pinning Puck down, gripping his wrists. "Get out, man. This is none of your business!"

Puck rolled his eyes and kicked Finn in his nuts with his knee. "Do you really think you can beat me?" He pushed the tall boy downstairs and resumed his way to Finn's room.

"NO!" Finn shouted climbing the stairs in fours.

But it was too late; Puck opened the door before Finn could have stopped him. He had to blink more than ten times for his brain to process what he was seeing.

"Are you gonna stand like that the whole morning or are you gonna say hello or something to your Auntie Tana?" she said while finishing her make-up.

Puck and his wide open eyes turned to Finn. "I hit my head really hard, right?" He moved his hand to the back of his neck looking for some blood. "No, there's no crack."

"Dude, you can't tell anyone," Finn said awkwardly.

"Nobody would believe him either, so…" Santana added. Then she squeezed Finn's face and then pecked his lips. "See you on Saturday, right?"

Finn just nodded. His face was as white as the paint of the wall. "Yeah, yeah, sure."

"Give me a ride, Puckerman?" Santana asked while walking downstairs.

Puck said yes and followed Santana. He didn't even say goodbye to Finn. Maybe he wasn't feeling like it. Maybe he was too shocked to even wave his hand. He couldn't articulate a word till he climbed into his car. "Seriously, what the fuck are you people playing?"

"Do you really think I've let Finn Hudson occupy Santanaland?" she answered. "Please, Noah, that's the impression you have of me?"

"You've… What the fuck? I don't know how many times I've already said this today. Seriously, what's the hell is going on?" Puck hit the horn in rage.

"Short version: this is Apocalypse Hudson. Rachel didn't say it clearly and she came back to Lima. Finn is stupid, we all know that, he didn't get the hint and proposed to Quinn. Why? You know it? Because I don't. So Berry comes back, nails Blaine…"

"What?!" Puck's face was quite a picture.

"Shut up and let me finish. So she nailed the little mocking bird, Hummel found it out when we both came back from New York and he called his that thing he calls 'brother'. He shows up here with Quinn and a container full of wedding invitations and here we are you and I, trying to stop the marriage of the year instead of letting the universe collapse."

"I still don't get why you've slept with Finn." His not prodigious brain was still struggling to cope with all that information.

"That's all. Sleep together. Brittany took Quinn to her bachelorette party, so I made her little fiancé swim in beer and put him to sleep. Not a big deal."

"So you two didn't do anything?"

"Play soccer. That bastard scored five goals with those freaky feet." Santana pulled her skirt up to her knees, revealing every brush she earned in her special mission. "I'm gonna claim indemnities for physical and psychological damages. Sleep deprivation is a torture technique used in the Middle East, and you don't know how hard it is for a non-deaf human being to spend six hours laying next to someone that snores like a tractor. I was afraid that he was gonna crop my intimate hair."

"And you're doing all this because…?"

"Because Christmas is coming and I need references. I don't know! I'm taking Spanish classes with retarded children, I'm bored! But that's not the point. The point is why you are trying to blow this thing up."

Puck turned the engine on and started driving to Lima Heights, avoiding Santana's question. "Your house hasn't grown legs and moved by itself, right? That would be way more believable than all this crap you're telling me."

"You still love her?!" Santana yelled.

"We're gonna stop this wedding, right?"

That was all Santana needed to know. "We'll make it right, Puckerman." She patted the boy's leg as a sign of support. "What if you take me to the mall? We have to dress appropriate for the event."

"I'm not going!"

"Oh, honey, trust me, you don't want to miss this show."

* * *

**Short chapter, no song, I'm saving all my energies for The Wedding.**

**Drawing on the length of this one, I want to thank every single review, fav and follow. I really appreciate it :)**


	16. Finn, Quinn & Rachel

**16. Finn, Quinn & Rachel**

"Don't tell me not to live, just sit and…" Rachel Berry hit the clock alarm before her voice finished the second verse of Don't rain on my parade.

She sat up on the bed, rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. Once out of the bed, she went to the bathroom and took a quick shower. She dried off her body, applied her lotion and stood in front of her closet. She took out two dresses. A beautiful light blue one, with a discreet cleavage and just one shoulder and… her own wedding dress.

Rachel ran her hand up and down the white silky fabric. "I can barely recall, but it's all coming back to me now," she hummed as a tear fell down on the dress.

The doorbell rang. She put the dress on quickly and hurried down to open the door. "Hey," Rachel saluted while Blaine came into the house.

"You look stunning," the boy said with a gentle smile.

"I haven't even done my hair yet," Rachel answered while blushing.

Blaine sat on the couch. "That means that I should make myself comfortable, right?" he chuckled. Rachel, in answer, took his hand and led him upstairs, to her fathers' room. "Really? Is it going to take that long?" Blaine said while pointing at the bed.

"Just sit down."

He complied. How couldn't he obey the girl with the wet hair and the beautiful broken smile? Blaine let her take his red bowtie and replace it with a light blue tie matching her dress.

"If we are going to a prom-themed wedding, we are going to go together," Rachel continued.

"We don't have to go. I don't want to either. We could just stay here watching…"

Rachel interrupted him, "No watching for me, no watching for you." She turned her back on Blaine. "Zip me up."

Blaine stood up and pulled the zip of Rachel's dress up. He couldn't help breathing on her hair. "Lavender," he thought. He took a slow glance at Rachel's curves, enhanced by the tight dress. But he pulled back. It wasn't right. That couldn't happen. No further discussion.

"Handsome," Rachel said while stroking Blaine's face. She came back to her bathroom and closed the door. "Fifteen minutes at the most, okay?"

* * *

Finn was sitting on one of the fifty chairs set in front of the altar. Quinn didn't want a classic wedding, and Finn agreed. If he had to do that, at least he wanted to make it fun and original, so the event took place in an estate of the Fabrays'. A vast field with no brown spot. Everything perfectly green.

They had put up two tents, one for the ceremony, just where Finn was sitting; and another one bigger that would be used as a place to eat, dance and sing, stage included. The only construction there was a little black-brick chalet where Quinn was getting ready.

Kurt walked out of the chalet and sat next to Finn. He put his right hand on his brother's shoulder and pulled him closer. "Ready?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"It's easier to take back a marry-me than an I-do."

"Are they coming?" Finn changed the subject.

"I don't think so," Kurt answered with his eyes fixed on the flower arch of the altar.

"I've cheated on Quinn." Another topic.

Kurt turned to look at Finn. "What?!" Though his brother wasn't looking back, Kurt grabbed his face and made him watch every single word coming slowly out of his mouth. "You did what?!" But he didn't let Finn answer; he stood up and came back to the house. "Don't tell me, I really need to know no more."

* * *

Quinn came out of the dresser. She gave a twirl to her mother and her bridesmaids. Her dress, of the whitest shade ever seen, shone under the midday sun that was breaking through the windows.

"Oh, baby!" Judy hugged her daughter in tears. "You couldn't be more beautiful." That was the face of the proudest mom ever. "I'm gonna go check on the catering, okay?" She smiled and walked out of the room.

Santana, Brittany, Tina and Sugar, each one in the same dress but in a different color, helped Quinn with her hair and make-up. "Where's Mercedes?" the bride asked. She really wanted to have her by her side on such a special day, after all they'd been through together a couple of years ago.

"She just texted me that she was on her way," Tina answered.

"NO!" Superstition came along with those three words.

"Oh, don't worry, silly, she's not driving from LA, they have planes over there too. You can't get paralyzed in a plane crash. Unless you fly Business." Sugar said. "Poor girl, now that she was getting thin…"

* * *

The guests started arriving, all of them dressed as teenagers who wanted to look like adults. And since most of the guests were adults… the picture was kind of hard to define. Anyway, Finn greeted every one of them as they took a seat, until they appeared.

"We weren't expecting you, guys," Finn said to Blaine and Rachel.

"I wouldn't miss this for anything in the world," Rachel answered, not even stopping, just sitting with her date in the third row, right next to the aisle, but not before taking three glasses of Champaign from one of the caterers wandering around the field.

Blaine took a sip of one of them. "Are we waiting for someone else?" he asked referring to the third glass.

"My dignity told me that she would come by later, but I don't know, I haven't seen her since a door got shut in my face." Rachel drank her glass in one gulp. "Actually, she can take a glass by herself. And if this gets warm it will be worth nothing." She emptied the second one. "Are you gonna finish yours?"

"Yes, I am," Blaine nodded and put his glass on the ground, out of Rachel's reach.

* * *

While Rachel threw herself into the sweet arms of inebriation, Finn kept welcoming guests. Mr. Shue and Mrs. Pillsbury wearing the costumes they wore in their respective senior proms, and proud to look like a delusional walking time warp of twenty years ago. Mrs. Sylvester in her usual tracksuit, just prenatal edition.

"Coach, didn't you read the invitation? It said that it was a themed wedd…"

"I didn't disguise myself for my own wedding; I obviously wasn't going to dress like a clown for yours. And much less knowing that the odds are against this ritual of unlimited intercourse of yours leading to the right harbor."

"Excuse me?" Finn replied.

"Come on, Frankenteen, 6 to 1 that you stumble down and fall on your way to the altar or 500 bucks that Q performs a Runaway Bride in the next thirty minutes."

"Have you any gambling problem, Mrs. Sylvester?"

"Pregnancy cravings, but thanks for asking, Hudson," Sue answered while resuming her walk to the seats.

Coach Beiste was the next one to arrive. In a dress. Actually, in a dress made of tissues. 100% Kleenex. "Congratulations, Hudson." She smaked on Finn on his back relatively gently.

Finn frowned while trying not to burst into laughter. "You look… very…" He didn't know what to say, so he just mumbled something meaningless, "…Coach."

"Thanks. I'm a wedding-crier, so… two birds with one stone. And besides, you Glee boys are not the only ones who get to go all Lady Gaga."

"Where are the bridesmaids?!" Mercedes asked Finn in a hurry, all sweaty and with a broken heel. She limped her way into the chalet. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" she apologized while hugging Quinn hello. "Oh, you're so beautiful."

The bride smiled, "you too, despite of the ketchup stain. Thank God the dress is red."

"Oh, no, it's not ketchup, it's blood. You don't know how rough things get when you're trying to catch a taxi at the airport. Nowadays people don't respect celebrities anymore. By the way," Mercedes turned to Tina, "your man is already here, he told me to tell you to break a leg. And Finn told me that everyone's already here, so you can start whenever you want." She shot one last smile at the blonde and went out to sit next to Mike Chang.

Quinn looked at her bridesmaids and the choir boys. "Joe isn't coming, right?" she asked Kurt, who was with the girls.

He frowned, imagining more things than he should imagine. "Oh my God, you too?" Kurt walked away to talk to his brother by the window. "This marriage already smells like putrefaction," he mumbled to himself.

The bride walked into the bathroom and locked the door. "Get going, I just need one last touch," she shouted to her friends in order that they could start the ceremony.

"We're ready, go to your place," Kurt told Finn with his head out of the window, so Finn took his position in the altar. "Okay, boys, it's the time. Let's make this worth," he said to the crew.

The New Directions, without Blaine, Joe, Rachel and Sebastian, led by Kurt, came out of the chalet and started their performance along the aisle when the music began to play.

_[Unchained melody – The righteous brothers]_

_Artie:_  
_Oh my love, my darling,_  
_I've hungered for your touch (Kurt, Rory and Sam: Your touch)_  
_a long, lonely time._

Quinn looked at herself in the mirror for the umpteenth time, only distracted when someone knocked on the crystal of the window. "What are you doing here?!" she asked while opening it.

_Santana:_  
_And time goes by so slowly._  
_And time can do so much. (Brittany, Sugar and Tina: So much)_  
_Are you…_

_Artie and Santana:_  
_…still mine?_

"I wanted to say hello to you before you become Mrs. Quinn Hudson," Puck said as he climbed inside the bathroom.

_Kurt:_  
_I need your love._

He closed the window behind him. "Noah…" Quinn tried to stop him, "you can't…"

_Tina:_  
_I need your love._

"No, neither of us can," Puck interrupted her.

_Kurt and Tina:_  
_God speed your love to me._

Puck pushed her gently against the cold tiles of the wall, kissing her passionately, doing what he should have done the first time he saw her back in the summer.

_Rory:_  
_Lonely rivers flow to the sea, to the sea,_

_Artie and Rory:_  
_to the open arms of the sea, yeah!_

Quinn kissed him back, running her fingers through the mohawk.

_Artie:_  
_Lonely rivers sigh 'wait for me, wait for me'._

_Artie and Rory:_  
_I'll be coming home, wait for me._

"I love you," he whispered into the kiss.

_Santana with Artie, Brittany, Kurt, Rory, Sam, Sugar and Tina harmonizing:_  
_Oh my love, my darling,_  
_I've hungered,_  
_hungered for your touch_  
_a long lonely time._

The sound of the music, the heat of the kiss, the emotion of the wedding crushed inside of Quinn's mind and heart, making a momentary silence in her head, enough to allow her to think what they were doing twice. So she pulled back and turned her updo on Puck.

_Rory with Artie, Brittany, Kurt, Sam, Santana, Sugar and Tina harmonizing:_  
_And time goes by so slowly._  
_And time can do so much._  
_Are you still mine?_

She dried a tear that hadn't fallen out of her eye yet and stormed out of the bathroom. "Sorry."

_Kurt with Artie, Brittany, Rory, Sam, Santana, Sugar and Tina harmonizing:_  
_I need your love._

"Don't marry him."

_Brittany with Artie, Brittany, Kurt, Rory, Sam, Sugar and Tina harmonizing:_  
_I… I need your love._

"I'm sorry, Noah."

_Santana with Artie, Brittany, Kurt, Rory, Sam, Sugar and Tina harmonizing:_  
_God speed your love to me._

* * *

And the bride walked down the aisle, with a big smile on her face under the watchful eye of the guests, who, most of them, were already touched by the song.

The singers sat on the first two lines of the left row of chairs, except for Kurt, who sat in the right row next to his parents and Quinn's mom.

The justice of the peace started talking once Quinn joined him and Finn under the arch of white and red roses. "Ladies, gentleman, goat shitting ten feet away from us," the man said with a grave expression on his face. It wasn't a joke, he really hated outdoor weddings. "Today we've gathered in this "lovely" field to celebrate the love of Finn Hudson and Lucy Fabray."

Rachel, a little bit tipsy, let a giggle out. "Lucy, I'd already forgotten that. Caboosey."

"Since it's about to start raining, there's a swarm of bees threatening my life and there's a lady getting naked between us…" Everybody turned to Shannon, whose dress had shrunk to the point of miniskirt with transparencies. "…I'm going to make this quickly. Finn, will you take Lucy to be your lawful wedded wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honor her and protect her; forsaking all others to be faithful to her until death do you apart?"

Finn took five seconds to think the answer, but he felt them like the longest five seconds ever. "Lawful? Oh, God, that means that I can go to jail if I lie? Damn… No, that can't be true; otherwise nobody would even get married. Or maybe this is the reason why people marry in church? Because God's always forgiving and the state of Ohio is a resentful son of a bitch. Fuck! Why don't I answer? Everybody is looking at me. Why are they all looking at me? Oh, Rachel, what? Don't think about her! But… what's she…?"

Rachel stood up and walked away. She almost fell down due to her blood alcohol concentration, but she just looked like the wedding-drunk instead of the despaired-ex-girlfriend-wedding-drunk. She didn't feel so lonely with her pain on her way out thanks to a child who started crying along with her.

The groom took a deep breath and answered, "I do." It was like peeing on his morals and on his non-lying rule but… it was the right thing.

Blaine leaned forward and whispered in Santana's ear. "Was this your great plan?" he asked with sarcasm.

Santana turned around. "This motherfucker is up to go all the way down. But relax, little pygmy, this is not over until Auntie Tana says so."

"And you," the justice of peace continued, "Lucy, will you take Finn to be your lawful wedded husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honor him and protect him; forsaking all others to be faithful to him until death do you apart?"

Quinn smiled, putting what had happened five minutes ago in the bathroom behind, ignoring Puck's look. He was standing with his arms crossed at the back of the carp. Though the baby's crying was distracting her from enjoying her perfect moment, she looked into Finn's eyes and got ready to answer.

"Mommy?"

A blond girl toddler crawled down the aisle while crying. Her mother quickly took her in her arms, rocking her trying to calm the baby down. "Sorry," Shelby Corcoran apologized that Beth was interrupting the ceremony.

Most of the guests laughed and didn't thought of the child's tantrum as anything of grave importance, except for those who knew about Quinn's pregnancy. The bride's eyes filled with tears, moved by how big Beth was. By how big the child she had with the boy at the back was.

"Do never underestimate Snixx' plans," Santana told Blaine.

Quinn looked at Puck one last time before she answered.

* * *

**To be continued.**


	17. Shelby

**17. Shelby**

It was a loud and clear "yes" what resounded in the field. There was no room for misunderstandings. In answer to the question, Quinn did.

"By the power enthroned in me by the state of Ohio, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss your bride."

And then they kissed. The guests applauded while standing, cheering Mr. and Mrs. Hudson.

"Epic success, Snixx. Epic success," Blaine said as he clapped slowly.

At the back, nobody but Beth joined the standing ovation. "And now you two give me a heads-up," Shelby said while talking Rachel and Puck to one of the tables in the other tent. The three of them sat down, Puck with Beth on his lap. "Anyway, I didn't dress my child like a flowergirl just to watch her mother getting married with my other daughter's boyfriend. I thought she was marrying you, Puck!"

"Actually, Finn was the one who was supposed to be on that altar… with your daughter."

Shelby frowned at Rachel.

"And now I know why New York tore you down," Berry added.

"Why do you say so?" Shelby asked.

"You've always told me that your career was the only thing that got between you and your personal life. And it did for me too."

Shelby held his daughter's hand. "That's only because you and I decided to give the 200% of ourselves to the city. We could have chosen a 50-50, but we didn't."

"It runs in the family, right?"

"It runs that you get a second chance to make things right," Shelby said while stroking Beth's face.

Puck kept playing with his daughter. At least he was enjoying something about the wedding. The little blonde in his arms again. "Peekaboo!" he kept repeating over and over again, though he wasn't hiding his face before saying it. He didn't get the rules of the game.

"I heard that you came back to Lima for love, am I right?" Shelby continued.

Rachel nodded, "and look at him, marrying LucyFer," she said with sarcasm right after picking another glass of Champagne from a caterer that was wandering up and down the tent with a plate full of alcohol.

Shelby took the glass away from Rachel's hand. "You're underage! And already drunk enough. These things never end well. And if you spike them with alcohol, even worse."

"Okay, mother," she rolled her eyes. "What do you want me to do?"

"Do you still love him?"

"I left NYADA for him! I even serenaded him with Woman in love!"

The conversation got interrupted by Quinn. She came to Beth still with tear-filled eyes. "Hey, my girl!" she said while taking her from Puck's arms. "It's a beautiful surprise! Thank you so much, Shelby."

The woman didn't answer, she just smiled at the newly wedded. Rachel stood up and left. "I'd like to talk to you later, Rachel," Quinn told Berry without even looking at her. She was too busy staring at Beth.

"I thought you would invite us, not that I had to be anyone else's plus one," Shelby said with a little bit of resentment. "Thank God your friend Santana called me yesterday."

"Yeah, I'm sorry I hadn't talked to you for a while. You know, I've been busy." Quinn pointed at her dress with her free hand. "She's so beautiful."

"She looks more like you every day that goes by." Shelby stood and walked away. "I'm gonna leave you three alone, okay?"

"Oh, don't worry, you don't have to go!" Quinn stopped her child's mother. She didn't want to be alone with Puck.

"I insist." Though she had missed lots and lots of chapters, Shelby Corcoran couldn't deny Puck and Quinn's sexual tension. Actually, even the goat smelled it.

Once she walked away, Quinn sat next to Puck, holding Beth in her arms. "Do you mind if I introduce her to my mind?"

"You married him," the boy answered, ignoring her question.

Quinn took a deep breath and realized that the sooner they talked it out, the better. "Yeah, Noah, that was the whole purpose of today."

Puck covered Beth's little ears. "We kissed. You kissed your fiancé's best friend five minutes before you had to say "I do" and you still married him!"

"You kissed me," she replied slowly.

"And you kissed me back," he said lowering his voice.

Quinn pulled Beth away. "Why are you covering her ears?! You look crazy!"

"Because I don't want her to know the bitch her mother is," Puckerman sentenced.

"If half of my family wasn't looking at us wondering whose niece I am holding, I'd slap your teeth out of your mouth."

* * *

After the rose petals rain, Finn stood with his family while Quinn was with Beth. Carole was proud. That wedding may not be the most expected moment of her life, but… it was her only child's day, so she had to smile and fake happiness. Burt, on the other hand and surely influenced by his own son, didn't stop grouching. "Man, I still don't get why you aren't marrying the other girl… what was her name?"

"The kleptomaniac dwarf who thinks she's the King Midas of straightness and that she can make people bat for her team just with the touch of her hand? That's Rachel," Kurt said while passing by on his way to climbing up on to the stage and announcing that lunch would be served in ten minutes.

Finn, tired of not finding real support, turned to her friend, but Santana intercepted him first and took him apart by carrying him by the tie. "Okay, little piece of shit, weren't you the honest one in the group?" she said, angry as a monkey, but not loud enough to make a scene.

"Excuse me?" the groom asked back.

"You can't go down to the Snixx' garden of earthly delights and then marry another woman! Why isn't your guilty piercing your overweigh soul?!"

"Santana," he started while putting her accusing finger away of his chest, "what we did was totally meaningless. I don't feel a thing for you. I'm sorry. What we had was a product of too much booze and… it is not worth breaking two couples."

"Oh, please, you have to do better than this to break Brittana."

"So… why don't we… keep this to ourselves and in our school reunion in 2022 we remember it as a funny story?"

Santana lost her calm on Finn's cheek. "You are the worst! Why is it taking so fucking long for your inversely proportional to your body fat percent brain to realize that Quinn and you is not going to work in this life or in the next one?!"

She sighed and walked away. "Tomorrow I'm taking Brittany and we're gonna go to the damn Tribeca. This place is so fucked up."

* * *

The table where most of the Glee kids were sitting was the closest one to the stage, where Kurt was acting as master of ceremonies. Every single member and former member of New Directions was sitting there, except for the bride, the groom and his brother, who were at the presidential table; and Santana and Blaine, in unknown whereabouts.

Mike and Tina doing an Asian handholding, Mercedes telling Artie and Sam stories about her successful Angelino life, Sugar forcing Rory to pull her closer to the table, Rachel killing her seventh drink, Puck admiring Rachel's iron liver and Brittany making the first toast of the evening. "This goes to my bestest blond friend, Quinn Fabray. Sorry, Sam," she turned to Trouty, who nodded in approval. "And to her husband, the man who saw me peeing in a can. That's a bond we'll never break. This goes to you too, brother."

"Where are our dates?" Rachel asked Brittany once she finished her toast.

"Mine's saving your relationship with the groom because you neglect your love life. Yours is up there," she said while pointing out to the stage.

Blaine asked Kurt for the microphone, "do you mind?" He only had to look at the best man with puppy eyes to get what he wanted. "Thanks."

"Don't you want me to introduce you?" Kurt offered friendly. More friendly than expected. More civilized than expected, actually.

"Nah, thanks anyway, I'm sure anyone would boo me before I started singing."

The both of them chuckled. "Well… the stage's all yours." Kurt touched his hand when he passed him the microphone, and shivered. A part of him wanted not to wash his hand ever again, another part felt ridiculous. "But that's what weddings are about, right?" he thought. "Forgive and forget. Or that was Thanksgiving? Or was it Christmas? Whatever."

Blaine set the microphone and started. "This is my gift to this lovely couple, and, most of all, to every single person who feels they're being alluded to."

"Oh my God! A Blaine Anderson's solo! Please, everybody, take your video cameras out and record it, this happens only once every lifetime!" Santana said after jumping onto the stage and pulling the microphone towards her mouth. "Did I say lifetime? Sorry I meant every fifteen minutes."

"Thank you, Santana, for the presentation," he said while the bridesmaid laughed her way to the table.

_[The one that got away (Acoustic) – Katy Perry]_

_Blaine:_  
_Summer after high school when we first met_  
_we make out in your Mustang to Radiohead,_  
_and on my eighteenth birthday we got matching tattoos._

_Used to steal your parents' liquor and climb to the roof,_  
_talk about our future like we had a clue,_  
_never planned that one day I'd be losing you._

_In another life I would be your girl._  
_We keep all our promises, be us against the world._  
_In another life I would make you stay,_  
_so I don't have to say you were the one that got away._  
_The one that got away._

Blaine recalled the lavender fragrance of her wet hair down her bare back before zipping her dress up. Those kisses, those hugs, those hours together.

_I was June and you were my Johnny Cash._  
_Never one without the other, we made a pact._  
_Sometimes when I miss you I put those records on._  
_Oh._

_Someone said you had your tattoo removed._  
_They saw you downtown singing the blues._  
_It's time to face the music; I'm no longer your muse._

_In another life I would be your girl._  
_We keep all our promises, be us against the world._  
_In another life I would make you stay,_  
_so I don't have to say you were the one that got away._  
_The one that got away._

_The one._  
_The one._  
_Oh the one, the one, the one, the one, the one._

_All this money can't buy me a time machine._  
_No._  
_Can't replace you with a million rings._  
_No._  
_I should've told you what you meant to me._  
_Oh._  
_'Cause now I pay the price._

_In another life I would be your girl._  
_We'd keep all our promises, be us against the world._  
_In another life I would make you stay,_  
_so I don't have to say you were the one that got away._  
_The one that got away._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh._

_The one..._

_In another life I would make you stay,_  
_so I don't have to say you were the one that got away._  
_The one that got away._

The touched guests gave Blaine an ovation while cutting their steaks. "Oh my God…" Santana mumbled as she cleaned the mascara smudged under her eyes.

Brittany wrapped her arm around her and pulled her closer. "Oh, sweetie, are you crying?"

"Fucking Frodo… I'm gonna cut his throat open," her girlfriend answered while trying to stop crying.

* * *

In the meantime, Shelby enjoyed lunch with Will, Emma, Sue and Beiste while feeding Beth. "With this boy you can win Nationals again, Will. I'm totally sure."

"Last year we made it mostly thanks to Rachel, Finn and your Troubletones. You should have come the celebration dinner," the teacher answered. "But I don't think we'll make it again this year. We are one member short and I can't put it all on Rachel, Blaine and Santana's shoulders."

"You have Tina too, honey, she's a wonderful voice," Emma added.

Will mumbled something with his mouth full, actually not paying attention to Emma's comment.

"Santana? Santana Lopez is in the club? I knew that Rachel was back, but Santana?" Shelby wondered.

"Yep, things weren't good for her in New York and she came back for Brittany. Who would have said that Rachel Berry and Santana Lopez were two of a same kind?"

"I find it really brave what those girls have done. You know, leaving everything for love. Put their loved ones before their dreams and their careers…" Beiste said while devouring her steak and a second one she got from one of Quinn's vegan cousins.

"You know what's brave, Shannon?" Sue asked, "Having a child around these bunch of dysfunctional teenagers. If their stupidity is contagious… Oh, please God have mercy on me for the next fourteen years."

"Fourteen?" Emma frowned.

"Do you know that legally you have to provide your child until he or she's eighteen?"

"When I was thirteen I was left alone in the forest. I managed to survive among bears, snakes, butterflies, Sunday trippers and other creatures. I am giving Sylvester another year of comfort and being useless for this society, so he shall thank me."

Will decided to change the subject and put behind Sue's atrocious parenting plans. "But what about you, Shelby? We don't know anything of your life."

"Well… my stay in Lima inspired me. It felt like a second senior year," Shelby chuckled. "So I told myself "why don't you go back to New York and try your luck one last time?" And hell I was lucky this time. I rented an apartment just for a month and it turned out that my door-to-door neighbor is a Broadway producer! Crazy, right? We had dinner, I told him about the idea I had and… yesterday he called me to tell me that he wants to put up my musical this summer!"

"That's fantastic, Shelby! Congratulations!" Will said.

"So now I have to write the characters, the songs, find the cast… But I don't think it's going to be harder than coaching Vocal Adrenaline," she laughed. "And I already have a few ideas so…"

"What is it about?"

"A teacher who tried to lead a bunch of misfit teenagers into the right path by using the power of the music of his choir. Does it ring a bell?" Shelby chuckled.

"Kind of, yeah."

Shelby carried on. "And I might need some… help from my friends, you know? And yes, this is a job offer, my hope-to-be-executive-consultant/main-character."

Will and Emma looked at each other, practically in shock by the proposal. But the long kiss Sue planted on Shelby's lips took them out of it.

"What are you doing?!" Mrs. Corcoran shouted.

"Yes, please, take him far, far away from here. Thank you. I love you." Sue wiped her mouth with a tissue she took from Shannon's dress. "Oh my God, Shannon, please, cover that nipple, we're eating!"


	18. Mercedes

**18. Mercedes**

"So, tell us, Mercedes, what is it like to share stage with the real big divas?" Artie asked once Blaine finished his solo.

"I'm glad you asked me that," Mercedes answered after a head twirl. "Well… we haven't been on stage yet, just studio work…"

"Oh, please, that joke was funny the first time, but do you think we're really buying this?" Rachel, really, really drunk, interrupted her. "If you'd even met them, you'd have put ten thousand pics on Twitter, and the last thing you tweeted was "Breakfast time" and a photo of a muesli bar. So, please cut the crap."

"Is everything okay?" Blaine asked while sitting next to his date again. "Do you know that two aunts of Quinn's almost rape me on my way here? No? Well, now you know." He frowned. "Oh, Santana, are you crying?"

"Over nothing related to you! Don't even think for a moment that you can move me with your velvet voice and your balladed pop songs. Because you can't!" she answered.

"And your girlfriend still can't cope with Mercedes' success. Nothing that we didn't know, but still rude," Artie informed.

Blaine's "she's not my girlfriend" overlapped Rachel's "I'm not his girlfriend." The both of them looked at each other and quickly moved their eyes away.

Awkward moment.

"That's the difference between you and me, Rachel," Mercedes said. "I'm making my way up to stardom in Los Angeles surrounded by the most influential artists worldwide and you're stuck in Lima trying to turn a gay boy. And that's what's tearing the Diva Alliance apart."

"You tore it apart the day you were too awesome to share Maria with me." Rachel hit the table with her fist in anger, making her drink spill on her dress. "Look at what you made me do! Happy?!"

"Has anybody ever told you that you're so much more annoying when you're drunk?" Tina intervened.

Rachel stood up and went to the bathroom. "Anyway, tell me about you guys," Mercedes changed the topic. "How are you doing?" Mercedes rested her elbows on the table, put her head on her hands and stared at Mike and Tina.

"We are doing so fine," the girl answered. "I thought the distance would be harder, but we managed it." Tina kissed Mike's cheek. "He hadn't needed to fail in his own life to save our relationship."

"You really should go to the head doctor because that concussion you had last year really affected you. You're manically obsessed with Berry, even when she's not here," Santana said.

"Who says I was talking about her?"

The Lima Heights muse's face turned into a Tina-Blowing-Wang-just-dissed-me face. Brittany held her hand while she finished blinking like a woman whose purse had just been robbed by a man disguised as an ostrich, not knowing either to scream or stand there shocked for a few minutes more.

"I'm so happy for you two." Mercedes smiled widely. "And what about you, Artie? Any lucky girl you carry out and about?"

The boy with the glasses blushed. "Actually… yeah, there's someone."

Sugar stood up and threw him her bread bun. "You bastard! Are you cheating on me?!"

"It took a while for me to get how it works too, but it turns out that you don't sexually own every man/woman/living thing with whom you've established sentimental/sexual communication, unrequited or not," Brittany told the angry girl.

Everybody at the table looked at one another, confused by Mrs. Pierce's knowledge.

"When did you get that… intelligent?" Puck asked.

"I'm not intelligent; it's just the use of the word 'slash'. It's kinda magical. That's why I usually call it 'unicorn horn'."

Puck took a sip of his drink. "And everything back to normal again."

"Anyway, tell us about your girl, Artie!" Mercedes insisted.

Artie tried to avoid answering the question by putting half steak into his mouth. The "don't speak with your mouth full" rule wasn't actually a useful resort. Once he swallowed, blushing again, he answered. "It's a secret, I can't tell you. She asked me not to tell anyone. It's kind of complicated."

"Five dollars on Fabray. I'm sure last year there were lots and lots of wheelchair passion," Sugar said resentful.

Santana followed the topic, "and you? Have you been able to find another man that can fill the emptiness Trouty left on you?"

"That's why you turned gay?" Sam joked playfully. "I know, I drive them crazy."

"Damn you do, Sammy Boy, look at Quinn marrying Moby Dick," Santana followed the prank. "Or you gay them or you turn them into zoophiles."

"Technically fishophiles," Artie added.

Rory frowned. "Moby Dick was a fish?"

"It swam? Fish," Puck sentenced.

"You're like Berry but quite the contrary!" Santana carried on. "What would happen if you two did each other? Would you… collapse into a huge black hole originated by the dimension of your mouths or just eat each other?"

"Thank you, Santana, we didn't want to eat anymore," Sam laughed.

Tina stood and raised her drink. Seeing that nobody was paying attention to her, she hit the glass a few times with her spoon. But still nothing. Harder. Harder. She hit it harder. She broke it and nobody looked at her. "Hello, everyone!" she shouted. "My name is Tina Cohen-Chang, and I am one of Finn and Quinn's closest fr…"

"Wazzup, babies!" Rachel interrupted Tina in the middle of her speech. The insane amount of alcohol had already gone to her head. That was the only reason that could explain why she crawled her way up to the stage and showed her underwear to every single attendant at the wedding when she tried to stand up by leaning on the microphone stand. "Rachel Berry is in da haus!"

"Excuse me, Berry, I was trying to…" Tina said.

"Oh, shut up, nobody was even listening to you. And don't put that surprised face because no one here gives a shirt for you."

"You mean a shit?" the other girl answered, totally embarrassed.

"Shit is what you think you are. A fart is what you really are." All the guests burst into laughter. "Berry out!" she said while throwing the microphone onto the stage. "Wait, no!" She got on her knees to pick it up again. "I wanted to…" she started while getting up, another pink panties full display, "…throw a toast to this lovely couple."

"This is going to be epic," Sam said while taking his phone out and hitting the record button.

Rachel resumed her speech. "Some of my dearest friends say that I am a needy drunk. Some of them hate me because they admire me so much that they even get to hate me. Those two men next to the bride… wait, no, it's just one, fuck, I'm really drunk. Sorry, mom!" Rachel pointed out to Shelby. "That one with the little girl on her lap is my mother. I met her three years ago and she ended up adopting Quinn and Puck's daughter." She covered her mouth with the hand that wasn't holding onto the microphone (actually, preventing her from falling). "Oops. Anyway, love you, mommy! In fact, I haven't ever said that before. My first time! Like the one we had, do you remember, Finny? What a wonderful night…"

The reactions were pretty disparate. Shelby's mouth was fully open, Quinn's face was shining in a bright bright red shade, Brittany and Sugar were drawing a banner on one of the tablecloths that said "Drunken Berry #1 Fans" and Finn was trying to cut the microphone wire with a knife, but Kurt stopped him. "I really want to see how this ends," he told his brother.

"Hey, Blainey, hand me my drink, please, honey," she said while holding her hand out. "You see this cutie piece of meat over here? The last time I got this drunk we fell in love. Well… it was just my first gay crush and a couple days later he told me, literally quoting, '100% gay'. But he was actually my best gay friend's first gay love. And gay gay giggity gay… What?! Nah, I don't know what I'm saying. Anyway, he loves me. Not my ex BFF, who's sitting over there laughing his ass off. Love you too, Kurt, though you hate me because I've stolen Blainey."

Rachel knelt again, but now leaning down in order to ruffle Blaine's hair, this time just showing the depths of her cleavage. "Honey, you have to stop putting so much gel in that little head of yours."

Once she got on her feet, she carried on. "And today I had a revelation. It turns out that I'm not only a needy drunk, I am an incredibly honest drunk. So I want to share the feeling of having free realizations with you, my beloved fans. Pucky Puck, get up here, please, honey, darling, my Jew man."

He waved his hand. "Nah, Berry, it's your moment of glory, I don't want to steal it from you."

"Steal it from me the way Quinn stole Finn from me?! Boom!" she shouted, even producing feedback. "Revelation number one: that beautiful bitch, oh, sorry, I meant bride. That beautiful bride spent the last year flying over the Finchel's heads like a griffon vulture so she could wolf my leftovers down!"

"Why the hell isn't somebody taking her down?" Quinn asked, not even bothering to burst out in anger.

"Revelation number two: I sang Woman in love. Barbra's frigging Woman in love! In case you're not familiar with the whole I'm-a-star thing that's the biggest love declaration ever. It's practically like musical proposing! And you'd ask, then why would you propose to an already proposed man? Because I owed Finny one! Yes, I was supposed to be the bride today. I might have starred a pitiful scene this morning with my wedding dress while getting ready for this charade a.k.a. Finn and Quinn's wedding, but… whatever, Finny, I still love you."

Quinn stood up and headed to the stage. "Okay, I've had enough." She started pulling out of the wire.

"No! Censorship was abolished many years ago! Santana! Do something! Fuck Finn again to distract her!" Rachel shouted.

Everybody felt silent. The bride stood still with bloodshot eyes. Then she turned to her husband. "What is this lunatic saying?"

"No, no, no, no. I am not the lunatic here, Lucy Fabray. I am not the one who tried to ruin my mother's life by making her look like a bad mother just because she was banging an underage boy, who was the father of her adopted child. The same child she made with you!" She pointed accusingly at Quinn after a very echoing "you".

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" the blonde answered.

"And now, after the revelation hour and feeling extremely appropriate to my situation, I'm gonna sing one of the many solos that Mr. Shue, the man who lost his throne as king of the hair gel addicts last year, denied me. Hit it!" she said to the band. "Oh, sorry, the name of the song. Valerie. Amy Winehouse."

"Berry, sing a note of that song and I'll strangle you with the mic wire!" Santana threatened.

Quinn turned to Santana. "Maybe you're the one who will end the night strangled. What did the drunk just say?" she asked slowly.

"Are you menacing me, Fabray?" Santana stood up and faced the bride. "Because I'd have no problem going all Lima Heights on you."

Quinn slapped Santana as hard as she could. "You are my bridesmaid! You don't sleep with the man of the bride you're bridesmaiding for, you bitch!" She slapped her again, so strong that she made her fall to the ground.

Nobody moved, not even Rachel, who was having serious trouble standing on her feet. Nobody said a thing. They just watched Santana Lopez rolling on the grass, with her hand on her jaw.

Brittany was the one who got to break the silence, with tears filling her eyes. "Is it true?" She didn't give Santana the chance to deny Rachel's bomb, she ran away as fast as she could, crying loudly.

"Go." Quinn pointed at the same direction Brittany was fled to.

Santana, as proud as usual, stood up and walked away, not before winking an eye at Rachel. But when she was far enough from Quinn, she shouted, "and he's still being as lame in bed as he was when I deflowered him!"

Once Santana was gone, Quinn climbed on the stage, elbowed Rachel when she took the microphone out of her hands and talked to her guests. "Who wants dessert?!" Her big wide smile distracted everyone from the tension that was thickening the air. "You can keep embarrassing yourself," she said before throwing the microphone back at Rachel.

"With the followers I earned with your Disco Inferno thing, this is going to be so viral," Sam told Mercedes while turning off his phone.

"They tried to make me go to rehab but I said no, no, no!" Rachel sang acapella right before falling from the stage.

"Damn! You haven't recorded the best!" Mercedes said while punching Sam.


	19. Brittany & Santana

**19. Brittany & Santana**

Puck and Sam carried Rachel to one of the rooms of the chalet. Meanwhile, the rest of the guests started eating their chocolate soufflés in a futile attempt to erase Rachel's intervention from their minds.

New Directions' table was more than quiet after Brittany and Santana's departure. "So… how are things going in Chicago?" Artie asked.

"I love it, man. Dancing all day long… and the competition is not as hard as I thought," Mike chuckled.

"But he misses me too much, right?" Tina held his boyfriend's hand and kissed it. "Like I miss you, my coochie-coochie!"

Mercedes frowned. "Do you know what coochie means, Tina?"

"No, but I love him either way," she resumed her obnoxious sickly sweet display of affection, which was starting to reach a gross level, involving the chocolate of the dessert.

Sugar elbowed Rory, making him spit the soufflé that was into his mouth. "Why don't you love me like this?! Why don't you lick chocolate off my body in public?!"

"Because we're not a couple… We've talked about this…" he tried to answer, but got interrupted.

"Don't speak! I know what you're saying and I don't need your reasons. Don't tell me 'cause it hurts!" she said dramatically, taking her hand to her chest and sighing theatrically.

"Have you ever thought of having a real relationship instead of demanding your exes' attention or trying to make them your vassals?" Blaine intervened.

Sugar furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you asking me out, little un-gay?"

The former Warbler, suspecting what was just about to happen and not feeling like a roll in the hay on the table with Sugar, stood up and went to check on Rachel.

* * *

"Wait! Brit, hold on, please!" Santana shouted while taking her shoes off and running across the field without her heels. "Brit!"

The blonde kept walking, not slowing her pace. It even looked like the tears made her run faster. She couldn't believe it, but she did.

"Brittany!" Santana stopped and yelled as loud as she could. "Talk to me!"

"No!" Brittany turned around and faced her girlfriend. "I'm not going to talk to you anymore. No! Never!"

Santana resumed her march. "I didn't sleep with Finn!" She started crying as well. "I would never cheat on you, and you know it!"

"Then why did Rachel say that?! She just made it up to hurt Quinn?! She might be a brag but she's not a liar."

"I… may have faked it. Just, and only just I could have slipped into Finn's bed while he was drunk and told him that we had had sex."

Brittany kept crying. "And you didn't tell me?! I am your girlfriend! We tell everything to each other! Was it… the day you forced me to take Quinn to that strip club?"

Santana nodded, embarrassed about her acts.

"You told me you went to New York that night! Why'd you lie to me?!"

The brunette didn't know what to say or how to react. Play the victim card? Make the lie even bigger? "It's just… It was a secret."

"And Rachel can keep it but I can't?"

Santana remained silent. "I'm sorry, babe…"

"I am too dumb, right? Stupid Brittany cannot keep a secret related to betraying her girlfriend's best friend. But you give it all for the girl you're supposed to hate! So yes, I am too dumb because I don't get it!"

"Why are you saying that? You know I love you."

Brittany turned around and carried on with her flight. "Yeah, you love the retarded girl. Please, ask the government for a subvention."

"Stop saying that!"

And so did Brittany. She stopped saying that and saying everything else. She climbed into her car and left Santana behind, falling on her knees, pulling out of the grass in anger. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

"Hey…" Puck saluted as he walked towards Santana. "Is… everything okay?"

The girl threw a bunch of grass at him. "What do you think, Einstein?!"

"It's kinda racist if you call me Jewish last names just because of my religion," he answered. But when Puck realized that Santana wasn't even in the mood for some verbal humiliation, he just knelt down and pulled her closer into a hug.

Santana's breakdown took its toll. "I fucked everything up!"

"You didn't…" Puck ran his hand up and down her back.

"That's what happens when you get into somebody else's business… Fuck!"

Puck cupped his friend's face and raised it up. "Hey, look at me and shut up." He made a pause when Santana shut up. "You did what you did because you care. And nobody can blame you for it, okay? You lied? Yes. So what?! We all lie. And Brittany will understand it sooner or later. So, chin up and let's keep this party going," he added while standing up, the both of them.

"I've been abjured. Didn't you hear your hot mama?"

"Anyway someone has to watch Berry, lest she chocks with her own vomit."

Santana chuckled and walked towards the chalet with her arm wrapped around Puck's waist. "You cheer me up and gross me out at the same time. How could I have let you go?"

* * *

Eighty-five exact minutes later, Quinn Fabray stormed into the room where Rachel was lying, accompanied by Puck and Santana. "Out," she ordered. The fake smiled had totally vanished from her face. There was just a grave expression similar to the one that's drawn on the face of a serial killer when he gets interrupted. "I've already said it twice; you don't really want me to say it a third time."

Puck walked out, but Santana faced her.

"Do you want another caress, bitch?" Quinn threatened.

"Thank Satan that I'm not feeling well, because you're one bollock away from being the first bald bride in the history of your anorexic family."

The door was closed after they left, and Quinn sat on the bed, next to Rachel. She stroked her face and then slapped it. "Wake up!"

Rachel sat up startled. When she saw Quinn's face ten inches away from hers, she pulled back, crashing against the wall. "Oh… my head," she complained.

"I think you and I have some chatting to do, right?" Quinn started.

"I have nothing to say to you, you diabolical, disturbed teenage waste!" Rachel answered. "Oh, fierce honesty. That means I'm still drunk. That means this headache is not a hangover. That means I'm not going to make it through the real hangover."

Quinn bit her lip in anger. "Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!" She stood up and threw a flower vase against the wall. "This is not about you! I don't care if your little head hurts or if you've drunk the goat's piss! Today was my day! MY DAY!"

Rachel held the palms of her hands out as a sign of peace. "Okay, Quinn, we can talk as civilized people…"

"You can't tell my husband that you love him in front of my whole family. You can't say that my best friend has slept with him. And you can't call me lunatic the day of my wedding!"

Berry chuckled as she covered her mouth. "Sorry… It's… kind of funny." She ended up laughing loudly. "Okay…" She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "I apologize. I shouldn't have said the things I said, because it's your wedding. I am really sorry, Quinn."

The bride smiled. "Oh, I didn't think this was going to be that easy."

"It's the truth. It wasn't very nice of me to tell you what happened after I told Finn that I loved him with my whole soul. Oh. I think I didn't. Do you want to know what he answered to my Woman in love?" Rachel made a pause and began to impersonate Finn, "I love you."

Quinn's face turned again. "You're pathetic." She stood up and headed to the door.

"I have witnesses. Ask Blaine."

"That boy is deranged," she laughed.

"Then ask Mr. Shue, or Finn's whole neighborhood." Rachel made a pause. "Or you could ask yourself, because I can't believe that I'm not the reason you've put a ring on his finger after… two months of dating? Come on, Quinny, we're full grown women here. Finn's a seat on the bus in rush hour, you threw yourself onto it before anyone could have taken it away from you."

The full disclosure time was so on. Rachel's tipsiness was fading away, and Quinn's consciousness of reality was tumbling down her denial.

"And I'd really appreciate it if you, here, in this moment of truth, told me that you had just invited me to your wedding because you wanted to see my face while he was committing himself to you forever," Rachel continued.

Quinn showed her archenemy her ring. "Don't call me Quinny, for you I'm Mrs. Quinn Hudson." She opened the door and walked away.

"This is not over, Lucy! NOT OVER! You don't get to turn you back on me. Keep fooling yourself as long as you want, but you can't kidnap him in Yale forever!" Rachel shouted and laid back.

* * *

The bride's way back to the party was long and shaky. Her hands were trembling and her eyes were sore. She wanted to cry so badly. She wanted to give up, give in to pressure and all the people that were trying to sabotage her love. Their love. Because it was mutual, right? Or it wasn't? Was it even love? Love? Obsession? An old goal that came back from the past the minute she saw the chance of winning? Was he a husband or a trophy? The love of her life or the only thing that slipped away from her hand? Quinn Fabray's head was full of questions that didn't mitigate once she was back holding Finn's hand.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"Checking on Rachel. She's doing fine. Poor girl. Let's buy her a 12-steps book for her birthday." She smiled and kissed her husband.

Then Mercedes and Tina came up on stage, sitting on stools. "This is our gift to our beloved girlfriend. May all your dreams come true like the one you've achieved today," Mercedes said.

_[My heart will go on – Céline Dion]_

_Mercedes:_  
_Every night in my dreams,_  
_I see you, I feel you._  
_That is how I know you go on._

_Tina:_  
_Far across the distance_  
_and spaces between us,_  
_you have come to show you go on._

_Mercedes and Tina:_  
_Near, far, wherever you are_  
_I believe that the heart does go on._  
_Once more you open the door._  
_And you're here in my heart._  
_And my heart will go on and on._

Rachel heard the music coming through the window. "Okay, this is it, last solo these people steal from me." When she opened the door of the chalet, she bumped into Puck and Santana. "Oh." She looked at what her friend was handing her. "Is it…?"

"Oh, please, do you really think that I didn't know this was going to happen?" she answered referring to Rachel's crystal wireless microphone as she slapped her butt. "Go out there and show Team Hell how we roll."

_Tina:_  
_Love can touch us one time_  
_and last for a lifetime._

_Rachel:_  
_And never let go till we're gone._

Tina hit her microphone a few times while Mercedes tested hers, wondering why they stopped working, until they saw Blaine sitting on one of the unplugged baffles.

_Rachel with Santana and Puck:_  
_Love was when I loved you._  
_One true time I hold to._

_Rachel:_  
_In my life we'll always go on._

They marched towards the tent, knowing that things were starting to get surreal, but, actually, not caring at all. They were a Glee Club. That stuff happens.

_Rachel:_  
_Near, far, wherever you are_  
_I believe that the heart does go on._

Her eyes fixed on Finn's, whose face was displaying a slight but true smile.

_Rachel:_  
_Once more you open the door._  
_And you're here in my heart._  
_And my heart will go on and on._

Puck and Santana sat back at the table and left Rachel on her own, standing in the middle of the tent, surrounded by tear-filled eyes and hate faces.

_Rachel:_  
_You're here, there's nothing I fear._  
_And I know that my heart will go on._  
_We'll stay forever this way._  
_You are safe in my heart,_  
_and my heart will go on and on._

Santana was crying. Not a-tear-running-down-her-face crying, it was serious crying, streams of mascara. Blaine, as well, staring at her… to-be-determined with his classic silly smile on. Puck was looking at Quinn, who was crying although she was fisting so hard that her palms started bleeding due to her nails piercing her hand.

But all the attention was focused on Finn and Rachel. Looking at each other. Both pair of eyes wet. Both hearts beating fast trying to pull out of their chests. Everybody there was waiting for the groom's answer while Rachel put her hand on her head trying to calm down the pain in it.

Finn stood up under the eyes of his wife. "What are you doing?" Quinn mumbled.

"Sorry." It felt even harder than the main question of the day, the one previous to the "I do" he was already regretting. He started walking through the silence, not moving his look away from Rachel.

Eventually there was no answer needed. Finn's way out didn't pass by Rachel's side. He just… walked away. Slowly but taking a firm stand.

"It's over," Rachel smiled gladly while staring at Quinn. "It's over."

Santana furrowed her eyebrows. "It is definitely a concussion. She lost it. She finally lost it."

Rachel shook her head and smiled widely. "No, it's over to the good."

"Do you mean 'for good'?" Puck asked, worried.

She walked away, in the opposite direction Finn left. "No, I meant what I meant." And she headed home with the sweet flavor of victory and alcohol in her mouth after she saw the wedding ring fall to the grass.

"I've slept with the paraplegic boy over there!" Tina shouted, breaking the silence with clear intentions of getting some attention. "And I am in a stable relationship too! With the Asian boy next to him!"


	20. Artie

**20. Artie**

"I am not one of them," Artie thought on his way to the choir room. "I don't want to fight for three and a half minutes under a spotlight. I don't want to rip my friends' eyes out for a solo. I don't want to be the talk of the school because I've been doing one or another. And, obviously, I'm not enjoying this."

What Artie Abrams was referring to was the cold gaze he got from his… friends? Everything was weird. Since the word spread after the wedding, no guy at school had talked to him, so it was kind of a long, long Monday.

There was no cure for it, just more questions. "How can everyone be afraid that the boy in the wheelchair takes their girlfriends away? McKinley logic." And the only answer he got at Glee Club was a silent treatment from Sam, Rory and Joe. He actually didn't care, because they weren't that close. Since the seniors graduated, his only friend was Tina, and things looked complicated with her now. He also had Brittany, but she didn't feel like being with a cheater either.

"So…" Sebastian pulled up a chair right next to where Artie had parked and sat backwards. "I heard you're having fun with a married one, huh? Nice." He held his hand out waiting for a high-five but Artie left him hanging.

"Leave him alone," Blaine said in a tired tone of voice.

"Oh, come on, Blainey, don't tell me you didn't have fun in the wedding either!" Sebastian replied.

Blaine rolled his eyes. It wasn't a day to remember. Things after Tina's announcement didn't get any better. They went home shortly after that, when Quinn threw everybody out.

"It was fun. They got married… and the vows weren't said by the bride and the groom exactly…" Sam intervened. "By the way, has anyone talked to Mike?"

No one could give an answer because Rachel arrived at that exact moment. She took her usual speech place in the middle of the room and started her routine talk. "Okay, first of all, I want to apologize for anything that I could say, do or steal last Saturday. I don't remember anything after that fatidic 'I do'. Second of all, rumor has it that some of you had the nice gesture to think of me this Sunday and gave me a few phone calls, but I lost my entire address book because of an outbreak of paranoia I suffered when I got home and, according to my dads, celebrated something with their best Pinot Noir, the one they were saving for the premiere of my first show on Broadway, 'The Berry Best', the heartbreaking story of a lonely townie girl that finds out that she's called to be the greatest voice of the 21st century."

"Do us all a favor and cut the crap," Tina said while walking into the choir room.

Rachel turned to the girl. "I think you did something really embarrassing, but I don't remember. Could you have fallen into a fountain?"

"No, that was last year, when you promised me that this would be my year to shine."

"Didn't you shine when you sang The one that got away?" Rachel asked back.

Tina burst into laughter. "You're a rockstar, man," she said to Blaine while sitting next to Artie. "Hey, my place, later. You in?" she asked the boy.

"Tina, I'm… I'm not okay with the whole cheating thing. And I'm less into discussing it in front of everybody right now."

"The girl's hungry. Feed her," Sebastian said while elbowing Artie.

Tina chuckled as she shook her head, moving her new bangs. "It's not cheating! Mike and I weren't dating anymore." She stood up and pushed Rachel away, taking her place. "I'm going to say because I don't want to spend the whole year like Berry, talking about her dramatic relationship with Mr. Fabray."

"Wait a moment, please," Sebastian interrupted her.

"What?" she asked rudely. "Feel free to record it. It's a very valuable statement. That reminds me that, Sam, you should show Berry her wedding toast."

Sebastian half closed his eyes as he stared at Tina. "We're all thinking the same, right?" he asked the group.

"That if Frodo stood right behind Tina she'd be an exact replica of Berry? Yes," Santana said while coming into the choir room.

Everybody looked at Santana, and her black eye. "What happened to you?" Sam asked in awe.

"I got a rematch against your Barbie while she was all Gollum trying to find her husband's ring. And now she has neither ring nor hair on the left side of her head," she said while displaying it. Excuse me, them. She took a long lock of blond hair out of her bag.

All the kids grossed out. "Why the hell do you bring this with you?!" Artie yelled.

Santana dropped it on Joe's lap on her way to her seat. "Maybe the little Jesus would like to do any miracle and make a Fabray for himself. Wouldn't it be so biblical? Jesus creating the Devil." She laughed loudly.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Tina resumed her speech, "I want you all to know that Mike and I broke up this summer before he left to Chi…"

"He Finned you too?" Santana kept laughing like a maniac. "What's wrong with all of you guys? Can't you manage with a vagina via Skype?" she said looking at Blaine. "It's easier than you think!"

Blaine made a face at Santana. "Why do you say it to me?"

"Come on, Frodo, there are some rumors we cannot deny." The former Cheerio kept with her nervous laugh. She put Finn's ring on Blaine's middle finger and took his shoes off, throwing them to the other side of the room. "Perfect."

"Santana… are you okay?" Artie asked, worried about her.

"Me? Obviously better than you right after nailing Asian Berry."

"You don't have to use an extra dose of offensive sarcasm to hide your pain. We are over. You can go back to New York." Those were Brittany's first words when she and Sugar arrived to the Glee Club.

Rory whispered to Sam, "is this what you call 'to Finn someone'?"

And, of course, Trouty's response was a wide-eyed nod. Brittany just Finned Santana, in public. In embarrassing public.

Santana had to blink a couple times before making any sound. "Excuse me… you what?"

Brittany walked towards her girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend now, the time needed for break-ups to make effect is kind of blurry). "This is for the best. For both of us."

"You can't just dump me for that! It was nothing! I didn't cheat on you!"

"But you lied to me. And if I can't forgive Lord Tubbington for breaking our pact of no chocolate after lunch, I can't forgive you either for licking Finn's bar."

Sam started retching. "Gross. So gross."

Brittany and Sugar took their seats holding pinkies. "Oh that's a total hell to the no!" Santana yelled.

"Mercedes?" Sugar frowned, given the fact that she got her back to Santana. "I thought she was back in LA?"

Tina stepped forward and started waving her arms up and down. "If you don't mind, I was trying to finish my statement."

"And if you don't mind, big-headed Lucy Liu, I'm trying to fix my relationship here." Santana shooed Tina and stood in front of the blonde. "Brit, please, you can't dump me for this."

"A relationship is based on honesty. I tell you everything. What I do, what I feel, what I see… everything. And if you don't, then I don't know what else you're hiding from me, and I'm not gonna suffer because you don't want to commit to me."

"Oh, my God, Brittany, please! How can you say that I'm not committed to you when I've given everything up for you?!"

"Don't you get it? She doesn't want you anymore. Go away," Sugar said with a very ghetto finger move.

Santana looked at Sugar with truly rageful eyes. "Seriously?"

"I am her friend. A friend she can trust because my Asperger's doesn't allow me to lie, not even to say the things I think. Unlike you, Silicon Lips."

"I'm gonna go because if I stay here for one more minute the chances of me making your daddy buy you a wig are incredibly high."

The Lima Heights girl walked out of the choir room, and Tina resumed her attempt of trading her story for a minute of being the center of attention, but she got interrupted again. "Show a little respect, one of our core couples just broke up," Rachel said.

"Oh, God! And what about mine?!" Another Tinazilla outburst was about to take place.

Nobody answered; they all just went to Brittany and tried to comfort her, but Artie. He rolled towards Tina until he hit her knees. "I am listening."

"Mike Finned me but he didn't want me to feel like another dumped one. We both agreed to keep faking that we were together and…"

"You'd rather make me believe that I'm betraying one of my best friends than admit that you're in the same place where Rachel is when you're doing everything you can to be her clone…"

Tina tried to hold Artie's hand, but he pulled it away. "Mike is not mad at you; he knows that we are having something. And he's happy for us!" Her smile tried to comfort him, to amend things.

Artie sighed after a long breath. "You know what your biggest problem is? That you don't see that you're fighting for something you've already achieved, Mrs. Berry. Stalk the dean of a music school and make out with Kurt and you'll have it all."

And then he rolled out of the choir room, blaming on himself for getting involved in the game. But he only kissed Tina when they were feeling weak after finding out that they were going to be neglected one more year. What was the sin in trying to get a little bit of happiness among all that crap? Damn the kiss, damn the feelings the kiss brought, damn the rest of those successive nights of 'duets rehearsing' that ended up in fulfilling things that they didn't finish three years ago.

* * *

In the auditorium, later, both Artie and Santana on the center of the stage, with the only back-up of the band boys. But if felt just like the two of them and their pain. The pain that brought sorrow. The sorrow that fed their voices.

_[Grenade – Bruno Mars]_

_Artie:_  
_Easy come, easy go, that's just how you live._  
_Oh, take, take, take it all but you never give._  
_Should've known you was trouble from the first kiss._  
_Had your eyes wide open, why were they open?_

_Santana:_  
_Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash._  
_You tossed it in the trash, you did._  
_To give me all your love is all I ever asked._  
_'Cause what you don't understand is_  
_I'd catch a grenade for ya._

_Artie:_  
_Throw my hand on a blade for ya._

_Santana:_  
_I'd jump in front of a train for ya._

_Artie:_  
_You know I'd do anything for ya._  
_Oh._

_Artie and Santana:_  
_I would go through all this pain._  
_Take a bullet straight through my brain._  
_Yes, I would die for you, baby._  
_But you won't do the same._

_No, no, no, no._

_Artie:_  
_Black, black, black and blue, beat me 'til I'm numb._  
_Tell the devil I said, hey, when you get back to where you're from._  
_Mad woman, bad woman, that's just what you are, yeah._  
_You'll smile in my face then rip the brakes out my car._

_Santana:_  
_Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash._  
_You tossed it in the trash, yes, you did._  
_To give me all your love is all I ever asked._  
_'Cause what you don't understand is._  
_I'd catch a grenade for ya._

_Artie:_  
_Throw my hand on a blade for ya._

_Santana:_  
_I'd jump in front of a train for ya._

_Artie:_  
_You know I'd do anything for ya._

_Artie and Santana:_  
_I would go through all this pain._  
_Take a bullet straight through my brain._  
_Yes, I would die for you, baby._  
_But you won't do the same._

_Santana:_  
_If my body was on fire_  
_Ooh, you'd watch me burn down in flames._  
_You said you loved me, you're a liar._  
_'Cause you never, ever, ever did, baby._

_Artie:_  
_But darling, I'd still catch a grenade for ya._

_Santana:_  
_Throw my hand on a blade for ya._

_Artie:_  
_I'd jump in front of a train for ya._

_Santana:_  
_You know I'd do anything for ya._  
_Oh._

_Artie and Santana:_  
_I would go through all this pain._  
_Take a bullet straight through my brain._  
_Yes, I would die for you, baby._  
_But you won't do the same._

_No, you won't do the same_  
_You wouldn't do the same_  
_Ooh, you never do the same_  
_No, no, no, no._


	21. Sebastian II

**21. Sebastian (II)**

Red light was filling the air all over the dance floor. Santana Lopez was moving her body at the sound of the music. Her body was shaking with every beat. 2 AM and nothing but the rhythm mattered anymore. Her drink was spilling drops all over her red high-heel shoes. Her dress was showing more than a mother would be proud of. But it was Scandals, so that wasn't a problem.

"I wasn't expecting you around here, Mrs. Lopez." Sebastian Smythe approached to her, dancing along as well. "Actually, I never expect nobody without something more than a tampon between their legs."

Santana turned to dance with him, rubbing her back against his chest. "This is the only place I know that my instincts won't make regret anything in the morning."

"Oh, I thought you were feeling like a challenge. You know, taking someone from the Dark Side of the Gay." Sebastian chuckled as he spun Santana.

"No, it's just I always get sexually needy when I go through a break up. It's like a mechanism that my body uses to tell me I can't leave it unattended for too much. The difference is that the last one hundred break-ups I called Brittany to satisfy me, but today…"

"Kinda out of the list, isn't it?"

The song ended, and she sat on one of the stools next to the bar. "But I'm not here to talk about it. Especially with you."

"Why are you showing me your paws, kitten? I thought we were besties," Sebastian replied while sitting in the stool next to Santana's.

"Oh, bitch, please. Doing a back-up for Berry with us doesn't make you one of the gang. That's just your daily duty in McKinley Glee Club. Get used to it."

Sebastian raised his hand and ordered two mojitos. "You can't deny that you could use a friend tonight, Tana." He made a pause. "Which reminds me: where's your BerryFF?"

"The only thing I could say to her in this exact moment is a big and loud 'It's all your fault', so we better not talk for a few days."

"Do you know that today is school night?"

"My one and only class is at 6 pm, you are the one who should be in wrapped in his blanky having sweet and gelly dreams with Blainey Anderson."

Sebastian chuckled as he took a sip of his mojito. "That's true. We have some unsolved business."

And then Santana laughed. "Oh, yeah, you wish!"

"I'm irresistible, and you know it."

Santana petted the boy's hair. "Sure, honey."

Sebastian held "his friend's" hand and took her to the stage and gave her a microphone.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Karaoke night! And don't make that face. Gays have really good music. It's not like I'm bringing you to the open night of a senior center."

"Why are you speaking as if we're not gay?" Santana chuckled as she put the mic in its stand and headed down.

Sebastian kept holding her hand. "Because I don't think you are and because I am the best male vocalist you've ever had for your duets."

The music started playing right after Sebastian asked the DJ which song he wanted to sing.

_[S&M – Rihanna & Britney Spears]_

_Sebastian:_  
_I like it, like it._

"No… I can't… I can't sing Britney without her," Santana said.

_Sebastian:_  
_I like it, like it._

"Come on, you'll like it!" Sebastian replied.

_Sebastian:_  
_I like it, like it._  
_I, I like it, like it._

"It's kind of her th…" Sebastian shut Santana's mouth with the microphone before she could finish the sentence.

_Sebastian:_  
_I like it, like it._  
_I like it, like it._  
_You'll like it, like it._

_Santana:_  
_Na na na, come on._

_Sebastian:_  
_I like it, like it._

_Santana:_  
_Na na na, come on._

_Sebastian:_  
_I, I like it, like it._

_Santana:_  
_Na na na na na, come on._

_Sebastian:_  
_I like it, like it._

_Santana:_  
_Na na na, come on._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_Na na na na na na._

_Sebastian:_  
_Feels so good being bad. (Santana: Oh oh, oh oh oh)_  
_There's no way I'm turning back. (Santana: Oh oh, oh oh oh)_

_Santana and Sebastian._  
_Now the pain is my pleasure._  
_Cause nothing could measure. (Santana: Oh, oh, oooh)_

_Sebastian:_  
_Love is great, love is fine. (Santana: Oh oh, oh oh oh)_  
_Out the box, out of line. (Santana: Oh oh, oh oh oh)_  
_The affliction of the feeling_  
_leaves me wanting more. (Santana: Oh, oh, oooh)_

_Santana:_  
_Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it._  
_Sex in the air, I don't care; I love the smell of it._  
_Sticks and stones may break my bones._  
_But chains and whips excite me._

_Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it._  
_Sex in the air, I don't care; I love the smell of it._  
_Sticks and stones may break my bones._  
_But chains and whips excite me._

_Santana:_  
_Na na na, come on._

_Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_I like it, like it._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._

_Santana:_  
_Na na na (Sebastian: I like it, like it)_

_Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_I like it, like it._

_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_I like it, like it._

_Santana:_  
_Just one night full of sin. (Sebastian: Oh oh, oh oh oh)_  
_Feel the pain on your skin. (Sebastian: Oh oh, oh oh oh)_  
_Tough, I don't scream mercy._  
_It's your time to hurt me. _  
_Yeah._  
_Oh, oh, oh, oh._

_If I'm bad tie me down. (Sebastian: Oh oh, oh oh oh)_  
_Shut me up, gag and bound me. (Sebastian: Oh oh, oh oh oh)_  
_Cause the pain is my pleasure._  
_Nothing comes better._  
_Yeah._

_Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Sebastian:_  
_Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it._  
_Sex in the air, I don't care; I love the smell of it._  
_Sticks and stones may break my bones._  
_But chains and whips excite me._

_Santana:_  
_Na na na, come on._

_Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_I like it, like it._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_I like it, like it._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_I like it, like it._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_Come on._  
_I like it, like it._

_S S S and M M M._  
_S S S and M M M._

_Santana:_  
_Oh, I love the feeling you bring to me._  
_Oh, you turn me on._

_Sebastian:_  
_It's exactly what I've been yearning for._  
_Give it to me strong._

_Santana:_  
_And meet me in my boudoir._  
_Make my body say ah, ah, ah._  
_I like it, like it_

_Sebastian:_  
_Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it._  
_Sex in the air, I don't care; I love the smell of it._  
_Sticks and stones may break my bones._  
_But chains and whips excite me._

_Santana and Sebastian:_  
_Cause I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it._  
_Sex in the air, I don't care; I love the smell of it._  
_Sticks and stones may break my bones._  
_But chains and whips excite me._

_Na na na, come on._  
_Come on_  
_Come on_  
_I like it, like it._  
_Come on_  
_Come on_  
_Come on_  
_I like it, like it._

_Come on_  
_Come on_  
_Come on_  
_I like it, like it._

_Come on_  
_Come on_  
_Come on_  
_I like it, like it. (Sebastian: Like it!)_

_S S S and M M M._  
_S S S and M M M._  
_S S S and M M M._  
_S S S and M M M._

* * *

"Has anyone told you that you look like crap?" Blaine asked Sebastian on their way down the hallway.

And the little boy was not far from reality. Sebastian was hiding his eyes behind a pair of Ray Ban shades. His hair was far away from his usually perfect style and the earplugs he had stuck practically into his brain didn't help his blending with the student body.

"Long, long night." He wasn't listening to a word Blaine said, mostly because he couldn't hear him, but since the answer satisfied his friend, no harm done.

Both of them sat together in the choir room. "And are you planning to sing with that in your ears?"

"Six AM," Sebastian answered while throwing his head back.

* * *

Both Santana and Sebastian walked out of the club. Actually, they stumbled out. It was almost dawn, and after three mojitos and six duets they were not in their best shape.

"And now we are supposed to drive?" Santana said while giggling on her way to the car.

"I live two blocks away from here, so…"

"You wanna have a sleepover with me, Squirrel Criminal?" She turned and walked back to Sebastian. "Bah, yeah, whatever. I don't think I'm your kind of target in case you're a sexual predator so..."

* * *

Blaine kept making more and more questions as the New Directions' took their seats and Mr. Shue began the class. Once all of them were sitting, the teacher started with a big 'SECTIONALS' written on the board. "This is it, boys."

Every single person in the room applauded in excitement. And Sebastian thanked God for the earplugs that saved him from having a seizure due to hangover.

"First of all, we need someone who do the honors and by playing a drum roll for the big announcement of the soloists. Which I've been trying to do for a week, by the way. So… according to the tradition, Blaine, as co-captain can you fill Finn's place?" Will said while handing the former Warbler a pair of drumsticks.

"Actually that's his goal in life," Santana said while walking in. "Sorry, I get cranky when I haven't slept well. And sorry for the delay," she apologized, but only to Mr. Shue.

Blaine frowned as he sat behind the drums. "You've been picking on me since you came back from New York. I really don't think that's only when you haven't slept or you are menstruating. It's just that you live in a constant and chronic bitch mode."

"Boys, let's keep it friendly, alright?" Will interceded.

"Don't worry, Mr. Shue, I'm happy little Blainey finally have grown some balls," Santana replied. She accidentally sat next to Brittany, and it took a while before she realized that they weren't supposed to sit together anymore. At least till things got less rough between them. So Santana scooted over to the next chair, at Sebastian's right side.

"As I was saying: Sectionals. I have two pieces of news," the teacher continued.

"Always the bad one first," Artie said.

"Both of them are bad," Will answered. "As you might have heard, there was a fire at Carmel High School last Friday, and the whole competition had to be rescheduled given their impossibility to compete this week, when their Sectionals were programmed for."

Terror faces started being drawn among the group, especially when it came about experience in gleeclubism. "No…" Rachel, Tina and Artie said in unison.

"Yes." It was a sad nod what joined Will's conjunction. "We have to put up a show for this Saturday. And as the organization thought it was fun for Nationals and giving the acceptance and success of the restriction, we'll have to stick to another theme requirement again: 80s, 90s, 00s."

"So… are you saying that we have to put three numbers in less than four days? There's no way you can appeal against that?" Joe asked.

"This wouldn't be the first time. Have you all forgotten our Nationals in New York?" Will tried to cheer the kids.

Brittany tried to do the math. "So we have to start singing a nonsense mash-up around the city, neglect the piece of art Artie and I composed, write another two songs and let Finn and Rachel eat each other on stage? And where are we supposed to get a Finn from?!"

"Sebastian, you're the tallest around here, so… you'll have to make love with Berry after your duet," Sugar added.

Will shook his head. "I ask you all to moderate your teenage sexual instincts. We are one member short and we have to focus on stage and backstage. No dramas for at least 72 hours, okay? You had your annual dose at the wedding."

"Yay! Let's talk about the wedding! Berry stole my duet with Mercedes, so that entitles me to get a solo, right?" Tina jumped up off her chair.

"Sorry, Tina, but the duet is Rachel and Santana's. Since you are our oldest member and you spend all mornings here, unlike them both, I've thought of giving you the biggest responsibility of all."

Tina's eyes started filling with tears of joy. "The main solo is finally mine?!"

"It's a really big burden I intend to put on your shoulders," Will kept saying.

"Yes, yes, yes! Whatever! I have it all under control." Suddenly, she started shaking her hands. "Wait, no, I have nothing under control. Christina? Céline? Whitney? Barbra? Rihanna?"

Rachel's nerves began to burn as well, but she tried to calm down by tugging at her leggings.

"Find our twelfth member."

Berry burst into laughter as Tina's eyes opened wide. "What?!"

"Thank you so much for your enthusiasm. We really appreciate it. Next matter of the day: since we have no Troubletones, we'll try a boys' number." Will started handing the lyrics of the song to Artie, Blaine, Joe, Rory, Sam and Sebastian. "And a coral anthem for our closing number. Nothing can go wrong if we are 12 and we sing acceptably. But we have to start working on it now. Boys to the auditorium, Rachel and Santana, the lyrics of your duet are on the piano, you can start rehearsing here; and you three," he said while pointing at Brittany, Sugar and Tina, "note down everyone's sizes and go shopping. Mrs. Pillsbury has the drafts of the costumes. Come on, everybody! We have not a second to waste!"

As Will shooed the kids out, Rachel and Santana sat one in front of the other. "How are you doing?" the first one asked.

"I could really use a friend right now." And finally Santana Lopez broke down.

Rachel couldn't remember a single time she saw her with her guard down, crying her eyes out. So vulnerable, so… human. Rachel hugged the not-for-a-while bitch and rubbed her back trying to comfort her.

"Why can't she even look at me?!" she moaned in tears.

"We'll get them back." Rachel's eyes got more wet than usual as well. She knew so well her friend's pain. But the worst part was that they couldn't do anything to help themselves.

Santana looked into Rachel's eyes. "She won't forgive me. Ever."

"Don't say that. Let me talk to her. We broke a marriage hours after the ceremony! That's technically when love's stronger. Yes, the road is long until I am the one marrying Finn, I won't say no to that, but the important thing is he dropped the ring and now I've got all my chances to…" Rachel shut up when she noticed that it wasn't 100% appropriate to make everything about her dramas with Santana in that state. "But let's stop talking about my epic love story that will be written on the annals of the history of romances."

The other girl took a deep break and spit it out, "Last night… with Sebastian," she couldn't even finish it. She couldn't say it all. But neither of them needed her to. It was a loud and clear message.


	22. Blaine II

**22. Blaine II**

Blaine Anderson arrived home exhausted after Glee Club rehearsal. He loved the pressure of singing and dancing against the clock, even when there was a handicapped boy trying to smash his feet by running over them with his wheels over and over again. He definitely loved the rush of Sectionals, and the way his head got distracted from his other matters. Short and talented-as-hell matters.

He dropped his satchel on the couch, and when he headed to the bathroom, the doorbell rang. Blaine sighed, walked back to the entrance hall and opened the door. "I wasn't expecting you so ear…" He frowned when he saw someone that wasn't Rachel. "I wasn't expecting you at all," Blaine corrected himself.

"Hey," Finn waved his hand from the doorstep. "I was wondering if you had… a couple of minutes for me."

Finn spent the last couple days in his house, on lockdown in his own room. He didn't talk to his parents, to Kurt or even to Quinn. Everything was too complicated and he decided to wait till the storm calmed down. So, after giving it a long thought, the best idea he had was knocking on Blaine Anderson's door. Maybe it would have been better to have at least one more day of reflection.

"Excuse me?" Finn wasn't the first person in the world Blaine wanted to see, especially because he was the boy he had a fight with last week.

The tall one shrugged. "May I come in? I really need to talk to you."

It was not in Blaine's character to shut doors on people's faces, so he let Finn in. They sat on the couch, feeling incredibly awkward, so it was the host who broke the silence. "Don't you think I am not the one you should talk to? I mean, why don't you try any of your friends or your brother or…" He didn't want to lead him into her arms, but who was he trying to fool? Not saying her name was like trying to stop a gunshot to his heart with a sheet of paper. "Or Rachel."

"I needed a bro." Finn started finding it hard to speak. Words were heavy; the air was thick in the room.

Blaine could notice Finn's sorrow, but he opted to play the indifference card. "Why don't you call any of your many friends? I thought you hated me."

"You are the only one who gets what I'm going through. And… I can't feel okay with myself if I'm mad at a bro," Finn almost pouted.

"And you would've seen that photo of me on Santana's twitter."

"Blaine Baggins on his way to Mordor," Finn quoted while chuckling.

Both of them laughed. It felt like all their mutual hatred just vanished. Blaine went to his bedroom and came back with a ring on his hand. He gave it to Finn as he sat back down. "Lost and found."

"I don't want you to think that I just came here for the ring. I wanted to apologize too. That day at school… I wasn't myself."

"Is anyone acting like themselves lately?" Blaine chuckled and put his hand on Finn's shoulder. Deep down he wanted his friend back too. At the end, Finn was the one who helped him when he didn't know what to do about Kurt going to NYADA.

The laughs and the joy lasted until the two of them realized that the cause of their fight was still between them, and she was a problem they really needed to solve. "Are you gonna fight for her too?" Finn asked. The question was in the air waiting for someone to finally say it out loud.

"It was so easy when I only had to fight for boys." Blaine started laughing again. He knew it was something serious but… what could he do anyway? Admit it all? Keep lying the way he'd been lying to himself?

And Finn didn't want to know the answer either. He had hurt Rachel enough to make her run off with another man. And Blaine was… a more than a great candidate for her, also gay. "I love her," Finn replied.

"You better go talk to her, okay?" Every word tore Blaine from the inside out. But he needed Finn out of his house. They just called a truce and if they kept talking about Rachel… things wouldn't end nicely.

When Finn saw Blaine turning his back on him he realized that he should go. "If she asks, tell her that I don't want to distract her and we'll talk after Sectionals, okay?" He smiled politely at his friend as he walked out of the house with the ring in his pocket.

"Hey, wait," Blaine called before Finn closed the door. "What happened with Quinn?"

"She came back to Yale," Finn answered, though he didn't know it for sure. It was more a hope than a guess but… did it really matter? He waved goodbye and walked home. It was a long way home, thinking about all the mistakes he had made.

He started going through the voice messages Rachel had left on his voice mail. Once again. "Hey, Finny, it's me. I know this is the seventh message in three days but… I just wanted to know if you're okay and… well… you know, that stuff. Call me." That one, the last one, was the most normal of all of them, though the one she sent right after the wedding was sort of funny. "Wassup! How's my Hudson man doing? Yeah, yeah… What a party, huh? Yeah… So… fun… and… emotional… and…" Then she recorded herself throwing up, started laughing on the phone and hung up with a loud "You'll aaaaaaaalways have my heart." Blame it on the alcohol.

Finn plugged his earphones into his ears, and he let himself imagine singing to Rachel. Those long nights listening to all the songs he'd serenade her with were the only thing that kept the boy pulling through, waiting for the day everything came true. And that day was already a reality. Next Saturday.

* * *

Blaine went to Rachel's around 8 PM, seeing that she didn't call him or come to see him one more day. They really needed to talk after all the things that were said and sung at the wedding.

It was Hiram Berry who opened the door. "Oh, young Blaine Anderson, come on in, please." Mr. Berry was always so warm.

"Thanks. Is Rachel home?" Blaine asked shyly. Every time he and Kurt had been to Rachel's Blaine had felt pretty comfortable around the Berrys, but… when you're talking to the father of the girl you like, even though he and you are openly gays, it's definitely awkward.

"Oh, yes, she's in her bathroom with her ritual. I don't think she won't be okay with you sneaking in." Hiram chuckled. "By the way, how's Kurt? It's been a while since the last time I saw him," he asked while Blaine was walking upstairs.

"He's… he's doing fine," he nodded without even stopping his feet on his way to Rachel's room.

He knocked once, but when he heard her singing, he just came in. He closed the door behind him as he listened to Rachel singing My Man in the shower. He knocked again, this time on the bathroom door.

"Tell Mrs. Smith that if I bother her that much with my singing, she gets me on my nerves every time she shears her cats in the backyard and all the fur flies into home. So she can become deaf or start appreciating art!" Rachel shouted.

Blaine chuckled loudly. "It's me. Your dad's downstairs."

Rachel walked out of the bathroom just in a bathrobe and with a blush on her face. "Sorry. I do love our elders, but it's just this old witch already has a foot in hell and drives me crazy calling all day to make me shut up."

"I… wanted to… I wanted to talk." Blaine felt like a little child. Actually, hitting on a girl was something that he should have done when he was a child so… "If you're not too busy having a Desperate Housewives thing going on."

Rachel sat on her bed, smiling widely. "It's okay. Tell me."

Blaine took a deep breath, sighed and started speaking. "You haven't told me what you thought about my song. The song I sang at the wedding, I mean."

"Would you be very mad if I tell you that I don't remember anything?"

"Oh." And then a part of Blaine's heart flew out of the window and got torn to shreds by Mrs. Smith's cats.

Rachel held his friend's hand. "I'm so sorry. But it's kinda your fault too for letting me drink that much," she joked. "Anyway, tell me, what did you sing?"

"The One That Got Away," he answered while biting his bottom lip.

The one that got away pulled Blaine closer, making him sit on the bed next to her. "And you sang… to me… or to Kurt?"

Blaine looked down while answering, "you."

There was a silence. A really painful silence for Blaine. He knew it. He could smell Rachel turning him down from five miles away. Things had changed too much. That kiss was given under circumstances that were not the same. But at least he had to try.

"But… I thought… we closed that chapter that night at Finn's street." Rachel adjusted her bathrobe because she was starting to show more bosom than she should.

Blaine just shook his head, intoxicated with that lavender smell of Rachel's hair.

"So… when I said that I loved you…" Rachel's voice broke up due to emotion.

The boy squeezed her hand, both shaking. "I… meant it… in a slightly different way."

Rachel pulled her head back, trying to contain the tears inside her eyes. "And despite of that… you…" A tear sneaked down her face. "You helped me sing to Finn?"

Blaine nodded, crying as well. That moment of truth made him feel so relieved. He was free from the burden he'd been carrying since that week in the backstage of the auditorium. It wasn't comparable to his existential/sexual crisis, but it was something not easy to bear given the large number of people involved in that… amorous triangle? No, it was definitely an undetermined-number-sided polygon.

"And either way you helped me with the entire My-Heart-Will-Go-On thing, sabotaging the wedding… everything to make Finn come back to me?"

Rachel broke down at Blaine's nod. Nobody had ever done something like that for her. Nobody ever put their feelings after hers, not even her own mother. Jesse sold her for a regional championship, Puck's first concern was his junk and Finn… he Finned her because he wasn't brave enough to go to New York with her. What Blaine had done was just like the greatest gift anyone ever gave her (besides, quoting Rachel, "my voice, you won't be disappointed, God").

Both of them hugged each other and lay down on the bed crying their eyes out. Their tears melting together. Their pain… wasn't pain anymore. It was true love with bad timing.

They heard how someone was throwing stones at Rachel's window. She stood up and opened it as she dried the tears out of her face.

"I owed you one," Finn shouted from the middle of the street. He was with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam. The first one had a stereo on his lap, and he hit play at Finn's sign.

_[Patience – Take that]_

_Finn:_  
_Just have a little patience._  
_I'm still hurting from a love I lost._  
_I'm feeling your frustration._  
_In ny minute all the pain will stop._

_Just hold me close inside your arms tonight._  
_Don't be too hard on my emotions._

_Finn with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam:_  
_'Cause I_  
_need time. _

_Finn:_  
_My heart is numb, has no feeling._  
_So while I'm still healing,_

_Finn with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam:_  
_just try,_

_Finn:_  
_and have a little patience._

_I really wanna start over again._  
_I know you wanna be my salvation._  
_The one that I can always depend._

_I'll try to be strong._  
_Believe me I'm trying to move on._  
_It's complicated but understand me._

_Finn with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam:_  
_'Cause I_  
_need time. _

_Finn:_  
_My heart is numb, has no feeling._  
_So while I'm still healing,_

_Finn with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam:_  
_just try,_

_Finn with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam harmonizing:_  
_and have a little patience._  
_Have a little patience._

_'Cause the scars run so deep._  
_It's been hard but I have to believe._  
_Have a little patience._  
_Have a little patience._  
_Oh._

_Finn with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam:_  
_'Cause I_...  
_I just need time. _

_Finn:_  
_My heart is numb, has no feeling._  
_So while I'm still healing,_

_Finn with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam:_  
_just try,_

_Finn with Artie, Rory, Joe and Sam harmonizing:_  
_and have a little patience._  
_Have a little patience._

_My heart is numb, has no feeling._  
_So while I'm still healing,_  
_just try_  
_and have a little patience._

"I wanted to wait until you've won your Sectionals, but… I don't want to hold myself any longer."

The smile on Finn's face was more than bright. His eyes were filled with hope and happiness once he was free of his "marriage." But Rachel's eyes didn't give the same reading. She just smiled back at Finn politely and closed the window before drawing the curtains. Then she ran to stop Blaine from leaving by grabbing his arm.

The boy turned around, staring at Rachel with his red and sad eyes. He couldn't say a word. It was even hard just to look at her. It was inevitably true love with such a bad timing.


	23. Roz

**23. Roz**

"Five, six, seven… Oh my God! How could you have won a national championship?! I haven't even told you to start and that boy is already on the floor!" she said while Rory tried to stand up.

Will Schuester asked bronze-medal winner Roz Washington to help his kids with their dance moves for the closing number on Sectionals. The choreography wasn't extremely complex, the only problem was that the boys' steps were kind of desynchronized. And who could solve that problem better than a synchronized swimmer awarded in the Olympics? Well… maybe someone with tact.

"I don't want you to make me lose my precious time or hear your excuses, basically because I know I wouldn't understand them. So next time you come to class drunk, I'll have you expelled!" Roz finished blowing her whistle.

"Mr. Shue? A word?" Rachel took Will to the backstage. "Mr. Shue, first of all, let me say that I love challenges and you know it, that's why I got into NYADA and I haven't attended one class yet. But I made it, that's what matters. But… are you sure having Coach Washington training people out of the water is a good idea? I mean, backflips and aqua gym are okay in a pool, really visual, but… we are talking about Coldplay…"

Will couldn't deny that Roz's methods were not comparable to Sue's. Both of them were winners, but Mrs. Washington was out of her element. "Rachel, we were very lucky last year on Nationals because the judges didn't give our sync mistakes too much importance…"

"What?!" Rachel interrupted the teacher. "There were no mistakes or failures or nothing at all. We were sublime!"

"Rachel, it's Wednesday and we still have to find the twelfth member. And I don't have enough time to listen to you. I'm sorry, but… just go back to rehearse."

Will walked out of the auditorium, almost running. He was overwhelmed. Sectionals, the wedding, History classes… And he wasn't a teen anymore, so all his efforts were starting to leave its mark on his health.

When Rachel returned to the group, she found a Roz Washington out of herself. "Where do you think you were going, Little Missy Sweaters?"

"Actually, I'm already back…"

"I don't know and I don't care either. Have you ever seen any of my boys getting out of the pool without my permission? No! Because there are frayed wires all along the edge and I have the key to turn the power off!"

"Actually, Coach," Blaine stepped forward in Rachel's defense, "I don't think we really need to do moves like 'the stuffed duck' to win a Sectionals tournament. I can tell you, I've won three of them."

Roz slapped Blaine with the medal she always carried hanging from her neck, but not hard enough to make one of his molars fly out of his mouth.

"I can't defend violence, but I won't lie by saying that eventually someone needed to shut that boy up," Sue said while walking into the stage. "Barbra Streisand, Barry Gibb, I'll take it from here, you can resume your sexual activities in either of your houses or deal with the pink elephant in the room. And I don't mean one of your rooms where I presume you traumatize your stuffed animals, no, I mean this room, this auditorium, because that gigantic pink elephant is a metaphor for your homosexuality," she pointed at Blaine, "in case all those show tunes and Katy Perry's songs finally melt your brains down."

Rory leaned down and whispered into Sugar's ear, "yesterday Finn sang a love song to Rachel and she cried."

"Good boy," she answered while petting his hair. "But in this country we have social networks to spread this kind of news, you don't have to wait to tell me until it's all over Facebook."

Roz turned to face Sue. "What are you doing here, Eve? This is my rehearsal."

"This is the 21st century; nobody keeps using biblical references anymore, except from that kid with the dreadlocks over there. I just came to do my daily stigma check on the aforementioned kids." Sue walked towards Joe and took his hands, looking at his palms. "Okay." She patted his shoulder twice before returning to Roz. "But the main purpose of my visit is that I can't concentrate with the bellowing of New Directions towards the Bottom of the Sea/The Place Where You All Belong. Is that your new name, right? Oh! Silly me! That's why you're here, isn't it? To teach this bunch of dolphin food how to swim down to the Little Mermaid's castle. Then go on, please, don't let me interrupt you. And I said 'dolphin food' because that would be the only lame enough fish that would eat you, in case all those show tunes and Katy Perry's songs finally melt your brains down."

"You've already said that pun," Tina pointed out.

"And you've been publically ridiculed, physically assaulted and constantly reviled for the last four years and you still don't get that nobody cares about your deviant melodies and your irrelevant teen dramas.

Roz frowned. "No, seriously, you just came here to mock on me and the kids?"

"You're welcome." Sue walked out of the auditorium with a big smile of satisfaction on her face.

The other coach followed her, yelling an indescribable gibberish that some people would define as only audible under the water. But any other person with an ordinary IQ would be pretty sure that it was mostly allusions to Sue's age, her marital status and her unborn child's sand percent.

"Talking about big pink elephants…" Sebastian said while leaning on Blaine's shoulder.

Artie intervened, "Mrs. Sylvester said 'gigantic', actually."

"Yay! Gaytervention!" Sugar shouted as she raised her hand up. "Love it. Love it. Totally love it."

Blaine started waving his hand and shaking his head. "Okay, I'm so out of here."

Sebastian followed him on his way out. "Hey, it's been a while since the last time we had a talk. Are you okay?"

"Not in the mood for a false friendship, Sebastian, but I appreciate it."

Both of them went to the closest bathroom as the group sat down on the steps of the stage. Santana came closer to Rachel, talking to her really low, "what did you do to Frodo? He looks like an Adele song."

"Powerful and Grammy-worthy?" Rachel replied with a frown.

"Not recommendable for people with suicidal tendencies. But what happened between you two?! He looks more… well… that, adelesque."

Rachel grabbed Santana by her hand and took her up to the back of the auditorium. "Where are you going?! This is a rehearsal!" Tina said from the stage.

"Oh, please, sing a solo while nobody is listening, it's your moment in time," Santana shooed while walking up the stairs. "I'm trying to deal with Berry's shameful sexual life, Brittany's dramatic break-up and my own pathetic road to hell. So, if you don't mind minding your own business, if you have it, obviously, you'd be doing a great favor to mankind."

"I hate you two so much!" Tina started having one of her tantrums.

Rachel and Santana took a seat in the last row of the April Rhodes Civil Pavilion. "Last night Blaine came to my house and declared his true love to me. That's it. I've said it."

"That's all? He arrived, said 'I love you, bye' and went back home?"

"No. We… cried for like two hours and then he went back home."

Santana rolled her eyes. "Will you two ever say clearly where the fuck you are and what the fuck are you gonna do with your obnoxious relationship?"

"It's not that easy, Santana."

"Yes, it is. You've created a little vampire. You've bit him and you've killed him. He's dead. Rotting six feet under. And now you have to let him feed on you to complete the transformation."

Rachel half-closed her eyes. "I don't think that's the way it goes. And, by the way, this is your worst metaphor ever."

"I know, last night I had a Vampire Diaries marathon and I am not still clear what's going on between the hot brother and Bella." Santana shot her eyes wide open when she realized what she had just said. "God, I have to fix things with Britts immediately."

"Finn appeared in the middle of our pity party and sang. To me."

"Oh, duh! I don't think he would have sung to your gay pet." Suddenly, Santana retched. "Oh. Oh. Oh! God! Take that image out of my head. Little Blaine being crushed under 200 pounds of tall obese teen." After a short silence, she finished her reply. "Oh, yes, that. Now I get it. We were trying to re-establish the natural order of cosmos, but you don't how to break it to our mockingbird, right?"

"But what if Blaine loves me the way I need to be loved?"

"Does the word 'gay' mean anything to you?"

* * *

"What if I'm not as gay as I thought?" Blaine and Sebastian were having the exact same conversation, but… with a slight difference of perspective.

"Why can't anybody stick to their own kind?! Did you learn anything from West Side Story?!" Sebastian answered Blaine.

"Because nobody ever asked me who I was."

* * *

"We all give for granted that he's gay because he wears…"

"Like Kurt?" Santana finished Rachel's sentence. "And isn't that a big neon light saying 'Boys only' over his head?"

"Can't he be just confused?"

* * *

"Confused?!" Sebastian shouted. "How many years have you spent being gay?"

"Since I was 11."

"And your best idea when you're 17 is changing your sexual orientation because of a girl who's a female version of your first big love? It sounds like Stockholm Syndrome to me."

Blaine slid down the tiled wall of the bathroom, putting his head between his knees. "All my life I've been thinking that I could only fall for guys just because I didn't even give it a second thought when I was supposed to."

* * *

"What did he say when you finished dating the first time?" Santana asked inquisitorial.

Rachel sighed. "100% gay."

"Then what's the big deal?!"

* * *

"I might have spent the last few years lying to myself because it was easier than facing the truth."

* * *

"Maybe… I should face the truth… Brad!" Rachel called.

Santana freaked out when she saw the piano man in front of her face. "What the what?! Really?"

"He's like Beetlejuice, but you only have to call him once."

* * *

Blaine, Rachel and their water-filled eyes met on the stage, once Santana and Sebastian managed to take everybody out. Except for Brad, obviously. They were standing on the center of the stage, holding hands. Except for Brad, who was at the piano, obviously again, not holding hands with the kids.

"I've made up my mind," Blaine started talking. "And I…"

Rachel shut him up with a quick kiss right before she clicked her fingers in order that Brad would start playing the song.

_[Make you feel my love – Adele]_

"Thanks. For everything," she said before beginning, already with a tear running down her cheek.

_Rachel:_  
_When the rain is blowing in your face_  
_and the whole world is on your case_  
_I could offer you a warm embrace_  
_to make you feel my love._

_When the evening shadows and the stars appear_  
_and there is no one there to dry your tears,_

Blaine smiled as Rachel wiped his face off with her thumb.

_Rachel:_  
_I could hold you for a million years_  
_to make you feel my love._

_I know you haven't made your mind up yet,_  
_but I would never do you wrong._

_Blaine and Rachel:_  
_I've known it from the moment that we met._

He tried to join Rachel, but his voice broke after that verse.

_Rachel:_  
_No doubt in my mind where you belong._

_I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue._  
_I'd go crawling down the avenue._  
_No, there's nothing that I wouldn't do_  
_to make you feel my love._

On the edge of the breakdown once again, both of them hugged and started dancing slowly while singing in each other's ears. "Damn lavender," Blaine thought spilling one more tear on Rachel's shoulder.

_Blaine and Rachel:_  
_The storms are raging on the rolling sea_

_Rachel:_  
_and on the highway of regret._

_Blaine and Rachel:_  
_The winds of change are blowing wild and free._

_Rachel:_  
_You ain't seen nothing like me yet._

_I could make you happy, make your dreams come true._  
_Nothing that I wouldn't do._  
_Go to the ends of the Earth for you_  
_to make you feel my love._

Rachel pulled back slowly, still holding Blaine's hands.

_Rachel:  
To make you feel my love._

"I don't want to have you hanging on for me. I know you love me. And you don't know how much it does make me love you too." Rachel noticed Blaine's disappointment on his face and squeezed his hands harder. "But in spite of your… in spite of who you are, I have to let you go."

Blaine chuckled at Rachel's words.

"What's so funny?!" she asked kind of confused, but laughing as well.

"You're Finning me!" Blaine Anderson chose to take the high road with that chuckle and stop struggling against fate. What was the use of forcing things with her? He decided to smile instead of keeping crying and crawling around Rachel. He did it right. His withdrawal was the only exit from the vicious circle of Rachel Berry's love life without dashing their friendship in the attempt.

"Superb! Simply superb!" a voice said while walking down the steps of the auditorium to the stage. "I would have joined you, but I think I've already had an epic entrance while you were having an Adele solo." The man held out his hand to Blaine. "Jesse St. James, I think we haven't met face to face."


	24. Lord Tubbington

**Please, don't call me crazy when you read this one, just call me creative.**

* * *

**24. Lord Tubbington**

"Heya, girl!" the cat said while walking into Brittany's room. He climbed upon his owner's bed, rubbing his back against the sheets. "Oh, home sweet home."

Brittany sat on the bed and scratched her cat's belly. "How's been your trip? You smell…" The girl sniffed her pet until she found a patch of burned fur. "No! Don't tell me you've started with your arson thing again! I can't let you go on vacation! You always go wild when I'm not watching you!"

Lord Tubbington put his paws behind his head and closed his eyes. "I didn't start the fire, those kids in the playground did. I just gave them the lighter. But what about you?" he said after a brief pause. "I know I should've called you, but some old ladies stole my phone and I can't reach payphones."

"Those fossils with their canes and their 'want-a-candy-little-girl?' are the worst." Brittany pulled the cat into her lap, stroking his back. "I… I broke up with Santana, Tubbing."

The cat turned his head to look up at Brittany's face. "You finally dumped La Reina Zorra? Thank God, girl. What was it? She and her band scammed you a bag of sand?"

"She didn't steal your sand!"

"So now bags of sand can speak and grow their own legs to walk away?"

Brittany blushed. "I might have… tried your way of living…"

"Gross, Brittany. Gross." The cat jumped off the girl's lap. "Putting aside the fact that you pooped in my box, tell me what that bitch did."

"Stop calling her that," Brittany replied. "She lied to me. And… she might have found a new best friend."

Lord Tubbington stopped licking his intimate parts in order that he could answer the blonde properly. "Honey, I've never liked that girl. She's too slutty for you. You deserve someone who takes care of you 24/7. Actually, you don't deserve that kind of person, you need it. Why don't you come back with the wheelchair boy? He always let me ride his machine while you two made love."

"I love her, Tubbing." Brittany looked down at her feet, trying not to break down. "She's my Tana."

"But you're telling me she's another one's Tana too, so unless you want a condominium with that other person, why don't you try someone else?" The cat frowned. "Oh my God, I feel like I'm one of those online dating sites for ugly people and sexual predators."

"I just told you I love her."

Lord Tubbington rolled his eyes. "I won't sing. I won't dance. I won't give her a contemporary poetry recital. So tell me what the hell you want me to say to the mamasita that keeps refusing to make me churros."

"I'm not talking to her. I'm still mad." Brittany arched her eyebrows, trying to reassure herself of her own feelings.

"Oh, please, you don't need a Spears revelation to realize that you're just playing the victim card on her. As your cat/conscience/manager, I command you to stick a love letter under my collar and open the front door. British food is shit and I can't fit through the cathole."

"Manager?"

"Yes, I got you that solo for Sectionals. Negotiation was hard, so you better not talk about penis wounds in front of Mr. Shue."

* * *

That Thursday Santana Lopez woke up screaming at midday. The last thing she expected to happen was to have a paw stepping on her right nipple. "What the fuck?!" That morning she learnt two things. The first one: stop sleeping in the nude. The second one: if a cat of the size of Lord Tubbington could sneak into her house, any 10-year-old burglar could.

She read the letter that the cat was carrying, and once she dried the tears off her face and fulfilled all the daily hygiene duties, she put the cat into her trunk and drove to the school.

Santana Lopez was used to turning heads when she walked down the hallways of William McKinley High School, but not because she had an overweight cat attached to a leash. And the fact that she was pulling on the leash and Lord Tubbington was dragging his back on the floor didn't help give the scene a little bit of dignity.

"What's up, Lopez? You finally decided to do something useful with your lame life and you started trading jaguars across the border with Mexico?" Becky Jackson said when she ran into the girl and the animal.

"Hey," Santana said when she arrived at Brittany's locker.

The blonde closed the locker and knelt down to release the cat. She hugged Lord Tubbington and stood, looking into Santana's eyes. "Why did you make him wear a dog leash?!" she asked with a chuckle.

"It's not a dog leash actually. It's a… let's just cut straight to the chase, okay?" Santana decided to skip the part of her using a sex toy to transport the pet of the most important person in her life. She took the letter out of her pocket and unfolded the sheet of notebook paper. "You, bitch," she started reading, "you know that you've hurt Brittany, right? Because in case you don't know, A) you'd be a total dick B) I'll teach you the lesson my way. I've convinced her to forgive you, so she's determined to give you another chance. But you have to make me churros or you'll find out that I wipe my furry ass with your Lima Heights threats. Signed: Lord Edward Tubbington." Santana looked up with a smile on her face. "Paw print."

Brittany blushed as she scratched her cat behind his ear. "I didn't know he would get so violent, but… you know, he just wants to protect me."

Santana didn't say anything about the unicorns drawn on the margins of the letter. "He's doing a great progression with his spelling. He doesn't mix 'will' and 'would' anymore."

"He kinda forgot to say that I loved you."

And the brunette saw the cutest face ever seen on a public high school. The face of a girl in love. A girl trying not to look desperate. A girl dying to kiss the only person who truly understood her. A girl in love with her best friend. The most beautiful face Santana Lopez had ever seen.

They kissed, squeezing the cat between them until Lord Tubbington jumped to the floor.

Sebastian was standing leaning on his locker, watching the romantic moment from afar. "You fancy them too, right?" Jacob Ben Israel whispered into the former Warbler's ear. "You know, we could go to the bathroom and help each other. Give each other a hand, if you know what I mean."

"There's a line that divides disgust from perversion. You live far away from all that stuff in a place called pathological sexual disorder," Sebastian answered while pushing him away.

"I should have joined New Directions a long time ago," the reporter said to himself.

"Get a room, lovebirds," Sebastian told the girls when he walked next to them, offering Santana a big smile and a wink. "Aw!" he yelled when Lord Tubbington bit his ankle.

Brittany picked the cat up. "Sorry, he's trying to quit eating human flesh."

* * *

Artie and Tina went together to Glee Club. Once they made things up, everything came back to normal between them both. "Do you think it's true?" Artie asked while his friend pushed him.

"Blaine told Sam, Sam told Rory, Rory told Sugar, Sugar told Brittany and Brittany thought she was sending Santana a make-up sext but she sent it to me. He's back," Tina answered.

When they stepped into the full classroom, their eyes shot wide open. "Come on, boys, take a seat, we've got a lot to rehearse," Will invited them in. "You might be having a déjà vu, but no, these are real," the teacher said while pointing at a pile of mattresses in one of the corners of the choir room. "Tomorrow we'll be having a pre-match preparation, like pro sportsmen."

"A sleepover in here?" Sam asked.

"We'll be rehearsing until late night and we'll wake up early and…" Mr. Shue answered.

"Sing till my vocal chords get on fire," Rachel rolled her eyes.

Tina leaned in, looking at Rachel, who was on the other side of the room. "Hey, Berry, is it true that you have a new old boyfriend?"

"Is it true that Mr. Anderson can't make it work in bed?" Artie added.

"Nothing happened between Jesse and me. And Blaine and I are just friends. Good friends," she smiled as she held the boy's hand. "And, Tina, Brittany's cat is the best twelfth member you could get?"

Will intervened, "girls, don't start again, please. I pulled some strings and I got us the vocalist we needed."

"Please, don't say it is the Jewfro." Sebastian sighed.

Santana raised her hand. "Yes?" Will let her talk.

"A thousand bucks on Finn. Could you be more obvious, Mr. Shue?" She laughed loudly. "I'm a trend setter."

"You owe me one grand, lips," Jesse St. James said while walking into the choir room.

The boys muted. They just blinked and muted. Even Rachel. "Oh my God."

"Mr. Shue, didn't we learn anything from the last time Mr. St. James joined us?" Artie asked really upset.

"I have a contract that prevents me from desertion, espionage and egg-aggression," Jesse answered the boy in the wheelchair.

"A contract?" Rachel asked. "Jesse, what's all this about? Why didn't you tell me yesterday?" In her mind, the only things she could think of were baby birds dying on her head and unexpected kisses messing up her relationship with Finn. Just when she had made up her mind about the Blaine issue.

"When I told Mrs. Corcoran about our problem," Will started talking again, "she pulled her own strings as well and…"

"She promised me the lead on her musical if I joined you while you find your last loser." Jesse brought the contract out of his leather jacket and showed it to the kids. "Signed by Shelby, your beloved Mr. Shue and myself. And there are just three clauses." Jesse started reading, "first: Mr. Jesse St. James commits himself to perform with the choir of William McKinley High School, the New Directions in every single competition in case they cannot reach the minimum number of performers stated in the show choir rulebook. Second: Mr. Jesse St. James bla bla bla, can't leak any info about your setlist or that stuff to Vocal Adrenaline bla bla. And third: I sing a solo, Rachel Barbra Berry sings another solo and we close the show with a duet of me and Rachel while you back us up. Translation to all of you deaf and mortal people: that's a win."

There were a few seconds of astonishment just before Santana threw Brittany's cat at Jesse's head. "Get the fuck out of here!"


	25. Jesse

**25. Jesse**

"Guys! Guys, calm down!" Will tried to make his students shut up, but their yelling at each other was too loud for his voice even to be heard. Brittany was trying to pick her cat up after her girlfriend threw it at Jesse's face. Jesse sat on the piano, smiling while Santana insulted him in Spanish. Tina lost her mind one more time and kept accusing Rachel of orchestrating her ex-boyfriend's comeback (actually, accusations served with hair pulling, lots of hair pulling). Blaine was standing on his chair, trying not to get run over by Artie. Sam recorded the scene for his Senior Year Greatest Hits, a YouTube playlist he started with Rachel's drunken speech at Finn and Quinn's wedding. And Sugar felt excited by all the chaos and tried to make up with Joe, which didn't work because of his Christian chastity, so she had to straddle Rory and French-kiss him so she could satisfy her sexual yearning.

After ten minutes, the only thing that could be heard in the room was Santana's cursing. "I only got three things: that you wanna rip my head off, that if I don't come back to my house you'll punch my guts out and that my mother is some kind of a filthy entrepreneur, right?" Jesse interrupted her. "And you know what's my answer? You're welcome."

Blaine stopped Santana right after she made a fist, lifting her off the floor while she kicked in the air. "Let me go, Frodo or I'll shove you too up this motherfucker's Eye of Sauron!"

"I never thought of Santana as a Ringer," Sam frowned as he remembered the girl's references to The Lord of the Rings.

The little former Warbler put Santana down. "Oh, no, let me do the honors," he answered his friend on his way to strangle Jesse.

The historic leader of Vocal Adrenaline pushed Blaine before he even got to touch his face. "Why don't we solve your problem like civilized stars and social wastes?"

"Mr. Shue, if you're up to this, I'm out," Blaine said to the teacher. Then he headed to the door.

"If you can outsing me, I'll share my solo," Jesse added before the boy walked out of the class.

A big "Oh" drew on each person in the classroom's face. Except on Rachel's. "My first diva-off as a spectator."

"Hot, right?" Sebastian asked Rachel.

The girl covered Sebastian's mouth with her hand. "You don't get to judge JBI." Though he had spent the last four years grossing her out, Rachel kind of liked the way he fed her ego.

Artie raised his hand slowly. "I was supposed to get a solo in the boys' number…"

Jesse held one finger out so that Artie would shut up. "I'll pretend that you haven't said anything, because my morals forbid me to crush handicapped kids. It's cruel and I think I could go to jail. Too many witnesses, sorry." He walked with a cocky air a few steps towards Blaine. "So… what is it gonna be, little Warbler?"

* * *

Just two spotlights on the stage of the auditorium. "On the left, Blaine Anderson, leader of the Dalton Academy Warblers for two years, another one as William McKinley's official solo hoarder and current co-captain of the New Directions!" Sam announced as it was a boxing match. "And on the right, Jesse St. James, four consecutive years as male leader of Vocal Adrenaline, four consecutive years being national champion, show choir consultant and coach of the Carmel group of losers that we beat last year in Chicago!"

"You win the most boring National Championship ever and you think you rule the world? A bunch of epileptic girls slaughtering one of Gaga's anthems and Finn Floppy Feet Hudson urinating on Meatloaf's legacy while singing what you all thought were notes on tune." Jesse rolled his eyes. "And, please, does anybody remember the judges? That MVP had 'Rachel Berry' written all over it."

"If that's how you defend your own choir, I don't know what you're capable of saying about us," Blaine said.

"Oh, come on, we all know that Vocal Adrenaline isn't what it used to be since I left." Jesse had to finish his speech because of a shoe that hit his face. "Who did it?!"

Everybody looked at Santana. "If I wanted to throw anything else at this dick it wouldn't be a stone or a piece of dignity."

The boys let the contestants begin with the song, without knowing who the author of such an opportune action was. Except for Artie, who high-fived Will when he noticed his bare left foot.

_[Who wants to live forever – Queen]_

_Blaine:_  
_There's no time for us._  
_There's no place for us._  
_What is this thing that builds our dreams_  
_yet slips away from us?_

_Who wants to live forever?_

_Blaine with New Directions:_  
_Who wants to live forever?_

_Blaine:_  
_Oh._

_Jesse:_  
_There's no chance for us._  
_It's all decided for us._  
_This world has only one sweet moment_  
_set aside for us._

_Who wants to live forever?_

_Jesse with New Directions:_  
_Who wants to live forever?_  
_Oh._

_Blaine and Jesse with New Directions:_  
_Who dares to love forever?_  
_Oh!_

_Jesse:_  
_When love must die._

Blaine felt himself blushing when he couldn't hold the note as long as his opponent. He knew that he had lost the solo, but before jumping off the stage, he found every single pair of eyes in the audience watching him. Supporting him. Even the ones who tried to mutilate his feet.

_Blaine and Jesse:_  
_But touch my tears with your lips._

_Blaine:_  
_Touch my world with your fingertips._

_Blaine and Jesse:_  
_And we can have forever._

_Jesse:_  
_And we can love forever._

_Blaine and Jesse:_  
_Forever is our today._

_Blaine and Jesse with New Directions:_  
_Who wants to live forever?_  
_Who wants to live forever?_

_Blaine and Jesse:_  
_Forever is our today._

_Who waits forever anyway?_

The group gave them a standing ovation, but it was only one name what they were chanting. And it wasn't Jesse's, of course. He just turned to shake Blaine's hand. And the boy didn't let him hanging. "We have an opening number," Jesse said before walking down the stage. "Rachel, why don't we start working on our duet? Choir room in five, I have to tweet that I've nailed another Queen song and my phone broke again. Damn my musical magnetism, always messing with the devices around me."

"The solo is mine?" Blaine asked astounded from the stage.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. As long as Mr. Schuester approves it. Wait, no, I am the one who makes the calls in here. You can go home, William," Jesse said right before he left the auditorium.

Will rolled his eyes right before Tina intervened, "you know we love you, Mr. Shue, but you kinda deserve this."

"It was your assignment this week to recruit the last member, Tina," the teacher answered. "This is the best thing I could do if you want to go on stage this Saturday."

Rachel stood up. "Let me deal with this, okay? Bring me my emergency helmet and I'll make him come to his senses."

* * *

When Rachel Berry came into the choir room, she found Jesse St. James sitting on the piano, playing a very familiar melody. "Hello? Is it me you're looking for?" he sang softly.

She sat on one of the chairs in front of the piano. Her eyes fixed on Jesse's hands as he pressed his fingers against the keys. "I thought we were okay," she said.

Jesse turned to look at Rachel. "And we are. You and I are so okay."

"Then why are you doing this to us?" she asked calmly.

The boy stood up and walked towards his ex-girlfriend. "Because I've been asked to win you guys this championship, and if I lose, there's no lead on a Broadway show for me. You win, I win. What's the best chance we have to win? Me. And you. So? My solo, your solo and our duet, the one we should start rehearsing right now. Not that we need to rehearse anything, we are masters of impromptu performances, but… let's use our valuable time giving this mucky walls some high quality music."

Rachel shook her head. "No, Jesse, I'm not gonna sing a duet with you," she replied sourly.

"Your solo, then?"

"No."

Jesse sighed and put his hands behind his head. "Since when do you reject solos?! Who are you and what did you do to Rachel Berry?"

Rachel bit her bottom lip and looked into her once man's eyes. "That's the difference between us, Jesse. We know we are these people's best chance of winning. In fact, we are their golden tickets to Nationals, Internationals or Galactics if needed, but this is not the way we roll anymore." She kept shaking her head, refusing to agree with Jesse. "They want to win by themselves. And… let's face it, our time is over."

"What do you mean?" He frowned, surprised by Rachel's consistency. "Our time? Over? Please, Rachel, stars never die."

"They just implode and turn into black holes. Black and needy holes of attention. We both had our moments and won our championships. Let them win theirs."

Jesse burst into laughter. "Oh, God, Rachel, please. Then what are you doing here if your choir days have already passed by?"

Rachel's face turned darker. Her expression was bluer, giving off some sort of sorrow that Jesse wasn't used to seeing in that girl. "This is the only place in the world I'd like to be in until I come back to New York. This is my house, Jesse, and you're breaking in just for your selfish purposes. They're my friends, and they have dreams. The same dreams you and I had."

"Don't tell me this gang of half-deaf kids wants to audition for NYADA."

Rachel nodded. "And they could get in, if you don't steal their credits from their résumés."

Jesse sat next to her. "Can I be honest? You wanna know the thing that bums me out the most about you? That you don't appreciate the things you have."

Rachel stood and shouted, "Jesse! I told you! I'm not gonna take a part on your ego charade."

"I was the one who got you into NYADA. I talked to Carmen Tibideaux herself and I practically sold my soul for you. I didn't made it by myself, you neither, and they? You can give them ten hundred solos, but that's not going to change the fact that what you're doing is putting their hopes and dreams under the fire ten hundred times."

That was it. Rachel saw Jesse's pain for the first time since they had met. She could see everything clearly now. "Really? You did that for me? Even when you couldn't do anything for yourself?"

"You were outstanding in Chicago, but that wasn't your best song, you could have done something much more spectacular." He grinned, trying to hide his feelings again behind his thick veil of sarcasm and superiority complex.

Rachel sat back down and held Jesse's hands. "I really didn't know it."

"Why would you? The only thing I regret is not stopping you from leaving." He made a pause and gave Rachel a disappointment face. "Seriously, Rach? Leaving NYADA for… Ohio?"

"I didn't leave; it's just a gap year. I'll be there next September and I'll crush them all while you're the next it-boy on Broadway. So what you did for me is not going to be wasted, though you'll wish that you had never done it the day that Hurricane Berry hits Broadway."

They both laughed. It was all coming back to them. All the moments of gold and all the flashes of light. They were a mythical couple. They could have been so big, so amazing together. But they didn't. And they knew it as their own names. And when they looked into each other's eyes and read… it all definitely came back at Jesse's kiss.


	26. Emma

**26. Emma**

Friday evening and the floor of the choir room was covered in sheets, mattresses, pillows, stuffed animals (mostly Sugar's) and Glee kids. The eleven of them made a circle around a burning wastepaper basket with the lights out.

Aware of all the drama that had surrounded/was surrounding his kids lately, Will decided to use that one and only opportunity in life to gather the New Directions and talk their problems out. Obviously with qualified assistance, a.k.a. his fiancée.

"Okay, we are all here to solve the problems and frictions in the group. This is a safe place, you can say whatever you need to say without being judged or told off. But there's a rule, only the person who has the Toothbrush of Feelings gets to talk. The rest must remain silent, alright?" she explained before passing the toothbrush to Sugar.

The girl picked it with two fingers, totally grossed out. "I want to say that 'Toothbrush of Feelings' is the lamest thing I've ever heard, and I spent the last year in this room with all of you, which is pretty lame by itself."

"Nothing else to share with us, Sugar?" Emma asked sourly.

Sugar handed Rory the toothbrush. "If you say that you miss your family I swear to God that I'll kick your ass back to England," Santana interrupted the boy before he started.

"Santana, you don't have the brush," Emma said.

"Nor the patience to put up with the same pouting over and over again," she replied.

Rory passed the brush to Sam, who did talk. "I want to say that I don't feel comfortable sleeping in the same room as Sugar since this morning."

"What happened this morning, Sam?" Emma asked.

* * *

Sam took a deep breath before he walked into the girls locker room. In a usual situation, everybody would have started shouting and calling the cops, but given the fact that Sam was in his Rocky Horror briefs and started dancing Village People's Macho Man with a big "Join Glee Club" painted down on his chest and "And you may get a piece of this" on his back, the scene was far from being related to teenage depravation, at least not on Sam's part.

* * *

"So Sugar threw me onto the floor and straddled me until Coach Sylvester saved me," the blond boy finished the dantesque story.

The alluded girl held out her hand, asking for the toothbrush. Once Sam handed it to her, she answered to the accusations. "In my defense I'll say that I thought that it was my birthday gift. And don't take it that personally. If I put a bag over your head is more a compliment to your body than an offense to your face."

Nobody said anything; they just let Mrs. Pillsbury ask Joe if he had something to say. When he took the brush, no word came out of his mouth, until Rachel intervened, "Mrs. Pillsbury, if I may." The girl turned to look at Joe. "As one of the most hurt parties in that dreadful wedding I had the disgrace to attend; and being aware of your sentimental past with, ironic mode on, our beloved friend Quinn, ironic mode off, I'd like to ask you… How are you feeling, fella?"

The boy of the dreadlocks remained silent. "I appreciate your support but… I'd rather not to talk about this."

Sam and Blaine squeezed Joe's shoulders as a sign of respect. Not bitching and airing the dirty laundry in front of everybody was something pretty unusual in that room. And Blaine had his hand on Joe's left shoulder, which meant that it was his turn.

He started playing with the toothbrush in his hand. "I just wanted to thank you all the support you gave me yesterday. I know some of you don't like me too much, so… thank you guys." Blaine smiled warmly at every single person in the choir room, especially at Artie, with whom things weren't very smooth that week.

Artie smiled back at Blaine. "Don't get me wrong, you know I like you, but…" His reply got interrupted by Tina's elbow digging in the boy's ribs. "Competition and stuff," he tried to finish with no air in his lungs.

"I think I don't know you," Emma raised her voice among all the laughter caused by that moment between Artie and Tina.

When Sebastian took the toothbrush, he introduced himself to the counselor, "Sebastian Smythe, I come from Dalton, and I do want to express some feelings I have in the inside."

They all muted. Nobody had ever seen Sebastian trying to open his heart. At least in public. Blaine was the one who frowned the most, but feeling proud of his friend.

"I know you have an image of me that doesn't correspond to reality. And that's my fault so I want to make amends with myself and with you, because if I'm gonna share my senior year with you, I don't want you to think that I'm only a man-whore trying to put every single man and woman in a leather suit and whip…"

"Okay! We get it! No need for scatological details," Emma shut him up nervously. She hadn't got over her… intimacy issues. Yes, she made it to home base on Will's baseball match, but she was still feeling very uncomfortable when subjects like hardcore teenage sex were brought up. "And, Sebastian, tell us, why did you transfer here?"

"I've been said that this is the way you do this, so… here I go: it all began as a dare from my friends at Dalton. They would all wear only the blazer for a week if I got to bed with Blaine during the first three days of school. But whether I achieved my goal or not, I would transfer back in that deadline."

Emma arched her eyebrows. "But you're still here."

Sebastian looked into Blaine's eyes. "Because somehow it stopped being a challenge for me." He offered the other Warbler the toothbrush back, but he rejected it with a gentle grin on his face, so Sebastian gave it to Rachel, who was on his right.

But instead of talking, what Rachel did was throw the brush to Tina. "Come on, say it now, I don't want you to interrupt me, it's going to be a beautiful statement."

"Please, Berry, one month listening to your 'I love him but I'm still doing my best gay' and you think you need a toothbrush to keep killing us? What you need is a little decency and a plane ticket for the first flight to New York or hell or wherever people like you end up going to." Tina finished with a smile. Not a friendly smile, of course, an I-like-the-way-we-roll smile.

Rachel got the brush back, and began talking, "I want you all to know that I'm not here to talk about my intense romantic life, though I know you'd appreciate it the day you decide to write my biography. What I want to tell you is that I tried to convince Jesse not to steal our Sectionals." The class stared at Rachel in awe, waiting for the girl to say that she made it. "But the price was too high."

"The price?" Will asked from the corner of the room.

* * *

When Jesse leaned in to kiss Rachel the day before in the choir room, the girl pulled back. He held her face and tried to kiss her again, but she started laughing as Jesse's attempt of reliving the flame between them.

* * *

"So he ended up offering me your numbers in exchange of, and I quote, giving these mattresses the première they deserve," Rachel finished answering his teacher. "I felt kinda whory."

"The first useful thing you could have done with that tongue of yours and you fucked it up," Sugar said. "Oops, sorry, that was too cheap."

"It's actually cheaper knowing that you wouldn't get a solo even if he-Berry got laid with Berry. God, someone sterilize one of them, this world can't take the risk of a child born to these two," Santana intervened.

Emma raised her hands. "Girls, please, Rachel's dignity is more important than… your disturbing obsession with the solos."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, give me the thingy, let's wrap this up. I want to sleep." Santana wrenched the toothbrush away from Rachel. "Relax everybody, I got everything under control." She pointed out at Brittany, Artie and Tina. "She's dealing with her cat's disappearance and Wheels and his Asian sexual master are going to have intercourse in this room while we all try to sleep…"

"Santana!" Emma shouted. "What did I just say about scatological details?"

"Oh, no, I haven't said anything about a tube of lubricant. Yet." A fake cough came out of Santana's mouth, "they like it rough."

The couple didn't answer. Maybe they thought answering the prank was not worthy of their effort. Maybe Santana wasn't wrong at all. But just maybe. Brittany did raise her hand. "I want to say that Lord Tubbington is lost and afraid around the school. He's probably hungry, depending on how many janitors he has run into. So, in case you see him, do not touch him. Just run and shout 'Jumanji'. Thanks for your collaboration."

Emma dismissed the group therapy when she threw the toothbrush into the dustbin. Blaine tilted his head towards the door, making a sign for Sebastian to follow him. They came into the bathroom. Blaine sat on the counter and Sebastian leaned against one of the stool doors. "What you said… was…"

"Already regretting it," Sebastian chuckled, feeling embarrassed about his moment of lameness earlier.

"Don't." Blaine's eyes met Sebastian's across the bathroom. "Keep going."

Sebastian shrugged. "What else do you want me to say? In fact, I was hoping that you'd start yelling at me because I objectified you and treated you like a deer whose head I want to hang from the wall of my living room."

"The fact that you fell for me in three days helps a lot." Blaine gave him his biggest smile. He noticed how shy and awkward that once-cheeky boy looked. "You know things about me that not even Kurt or my own brother knows."

"And what does that mean exactly?"

"It means that it's a big step for us that I've told those to you." He made a pause. "So there's no secret between us. You know… me... and… my situation."

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, the Berry issue."

"And that's over."

The cards were all over the table. Except for one. The one that suddenly Sebastian felt as a potential rock on their road. "Before we go any further I have to tell you about something. It meant nothing. It was just… the typical one-night stand after getting drunker than Rachel."

Blaine didn't answer, waiting for the tall boy to finish his confession. He couldn't deny he was feeling a little scared. Sebastian Smythe was everything but a predictable person. So he prayed for him not to say anything that made him run out of that bathroom.

"Santana and I." When he pronounced those three words, the shorter Warbler sighed with relief. "What?"

"I was expecting something more like… I'm having an affair with your father, you know?" Blaine chuckled loudly. "Thank God."

Sebastian bit his bottom lip and laughed as well. "Oh, I see, I'm a box full of surprises. But you can't tell anyone because Brittany doesn't know and…"

"They've been through enough crap lately and you care about your friends," Blaine finished the sentence. He looked down before moving his eyes back up to Sebastian's. They both took a deep breath and burst into laughter again when they saw how nervous they were.

Sebastian stepped forward. "What the fuck are we doing? What are we? 13-year-olds waiting for their first kiss?" He took another step as Blaine jumped off the counter.

They found themselves standing three inches away from each other before Blaine got on his tiptoes and kissed Sebastian, who cupped his face and kissed him back passionately.

* * *

Meanwhile, the boys in the choir room decided to get themselves to sleep by singing a song. A song just because they wanted to sing it. Something to chill out instead of wanting to blow their heads off rehearsing it over and over again. Just fun and a relative peace between them all. No meaning, no hard feelings, no nothing.

_[Every breath you take – The Police]_

_Joe:_  
_Every breath you take._  
_And every move you make._  
_Every bond you break._  
_Every step you take._  
_I'll be watching you._

_Sam:_  
_Every single day._  
_And every word you say._  
_Every game you play._  
_Every night you stay._  
_I'll be watching you._

_Tina:_  
_Oh can't you see?_  
_You belong to me. _

_Artie:_  
_How my poor heart aches_  
_with every step you take!_

_Rachel:_  
_Every move you make._  
_And every vow you break._  
_Every smile you fake._  
_Every claim you stake._  
_I'll be watching you._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_Since you've gone I've been lost without a trace._  
_I dream at night I can only see your face._  
_I look around but it's you I can't replace._  
_I feel so cold and I long for your embrace._  
_I keep crying baby, baby, please!_

They danced together. They jumped on the mattresses, they felt... together for the first time since school started, singing their "uhs" and grabbing one another by the waist no matter what things they've said.

_Will:_  
_Oh can't you see?_  
_You belong to me._

_Emma and Will:_  
_How my poor heart aches_  
_with every step you take!_

_Sugar:_  
_Every move you make._  
_And every vow you break._  
_Every smile you fake._  
_Every claim you stake._  
_I'll be watching you._

_Rory and Sugar:_  
_Every move you make._  
_Every step you take._  
_I'll be watching you._

_Rory:_  
_I'll be watching you._

_New Directions:_  
_Every breath you take._  
_Every move you make._  
_Every bond you break._  
_Every step you take._

_Rory:_  
_I'll be watching you._

_New Directions:_  
_Every single day._  
_Every word you say._  
_Every game you play._  
_Every night you stay._

_Rory:_  
_I'll be watching you._

_New Directions:_  
_Every move you make._  
_Every vow you break._  
_Every smile you fake._  
_Every claim you stake._

_Rory:_  
_I'll be watching you._

_New Directions:_  
_Every single day._  
_Every word you say._  
_Every game you play._  
_Every night you stay._

_Rory:_  
_I'll be watching you._


	27. New Directions

**27. New Directions**

All the boys in black shirts and pants with silver ties. All the girls in black dresses with silver headbands and bands wrapped around their waists. Except for Santana, who was dressed in a halo of rage, fury and fire.

"This is the Lima Heights Civic Center. You really don't want me to whistle and call my…"

Jesse threw a glass of water at her face to shut her up. "Overheating is the principal cause of death in people like you. All day in the street, under the sun, surrounded by your gang and going up and down with bags full of smuggled hair extensions."

"Jesse!" Will shouted.

He showed a laminated photocopy of his contract. "Untouchable." Actually, only untouchable until Santana slapped him as hard as she could. "Remember my face, because you won't see me again till the day I take a photo of you in court while the guards take you from the stand to jail."

"I'm so out of here!" Santana's yell resounded twice in the room. So much hatred deserved a double echo. She stormed out of the dressing room.

Rachel tried to hide her smile. "There's no time to look for a substitute, we only have five minutes till we're on stage. Guys," she turned to the seven boys in the room, "go to the stage and I'll take care of this." She headed to the door, "where the hell can I get a blond wig this?" she said to herself.

Will took the boys to the backstage, so the only ones in the dressing room were Brittany, Sugar and Tina. "And what are we supposed to do now?"

"You could have done your job," Sugar answered. "Anyway… when did a plan of these two ended up well? And, a yet more important question: how many people got laid last night?"

Both Tina and Brittany blushed.

"You're so gross."

* * *

Rachel and Santana burst into laughter when they met in the hallways. "Do you think he bought it?" Rachel asked.

"Call in the reinforcements; I have a mic to hide in my vajayjay."

When Santana went to her seat in the audience, Rachel walked into one of the rooms of the Civic Center. "They're about to start so… get ready, okay?" She winked an eye at the people in the room before she left to the back of the theater, where her solo was supposed to start from.

"Hey!" a voice called Rachel on her way down the hallway. "Break a leg."

"And from William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio, the New Directions!" the host announced. She resumed her walk with a wide smile on her face.

* * *

"What are you doing here, Sue?" Emma asked when her fiancé's nemesis sat right next to her.

"I had a false alarm this morning, and who better to scare my baby and force him to stay inside for the next one and a half months than the sound of how messed up the American youth is?"

Emma sighed. "Sue, we were with you the day the doctor told you your baby was a she."

"If my body is designing his body, I get to say if he pees sitting or standing for the rest of his life. Mind your own business, Estée, in case you can fit it in your tiny bird hips."

* * *

Who Wants to Live Forever was a total success. The public roared as the boys left the stage. This time Blaine wasn't outsung by Jesse, so that in addition to having a five-voice back-up made an ace of the performance.

The short former Warbler took his opponent out of the backstage with the excuse that Rachel was having some kind of nervous breakdown because she sneezed three times in a row.

"Hey! Jesse J!" Two boys said in unison as they put their arms around Jesse's neck when they ran into him.

He tried to get off them, but he wasn't able. "What the fuck are you doing here? Let me go, I have a duet to…"

They practically pushed him into the room where they were hiding before. "Don't be like that, let's catch up. It's been a while since the last time we saw, man." Blaine high-fived Finn after he replied to Jesse.

"Yeah, dude, we've roamed seas and oceans to be here with you today. You can't turn us down," Puckerman said.

All the New Directions boys mocked on Jesse. Everyone except for Sugar, who squeezed Puck's ass. "I've missed you too, honey."

* * *

Rachel Berry took a deep breath as she took a grip on the curtain that was separating her from the audience. She checked on her usual microphone and got ready for her song to start, as thrilled as the day she sang Don't Rain on my Parade four years ago.

_[When you believe – Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey]_

She drew the curtain and started her way down the theater aisle.

_Rachel:_  
_Many nights we've prayed_  
_with no proof anyone could hear._  
_In our hearts a hopeful song_  
_we barely understood. _

_Now we are not afraid,_  
_although we know there's much to fear._  
_We were moving mountains long_  
_before we knew we could._  
_Oh, yeah._

Rachel passed by Santana, who took her coat off and stood up, a microphone in her hand, and as she grabbed Rachel by the waist, she started singing along with her.

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_There can be miracles when you believe._  
_Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill._  
_Who knows what miracles you can achieve._  
_When you believe, somehow you will._  
_You will when you believe._

_Rachel:_  
_Uhm._

_Santana:_  
_Oh._  
_In this time of fear_  
_when prayer so often proves in vain,_  
_hope seems like the summer birds_  
_too swiftly flown away. _

_Yet now I'm standing here._  
_My heart's so full I can't explain._  
_Seeking faith and speaking words_  
_I never thought I'd say._

They climbed the stairs onto the stage up before they placed the microphones in their stands.

_Rachel:_  
_There can be miracles, when you believe. (Santana: When you believe)_  
_Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill. (Santana: Uhm)_

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_Who knows what miracles_

_Rachel:_  
_you can achieve. (Santana: You can achieve)_  
_When you believe, somehow you will. _

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_You will when you believe._

"What did see on her?" Sebastian asked Blaine with a chuckle as they watched the girls' performance from the backstage.

Blaine rolled his eyes. "Perfection," he answered with a soft foolish smile drawn on his face as he leaned his head on Sebastian's shoulder with their fingers intertwined.

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_They don't always happen _

_Santana:_  
_when you ask._

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_Ah._  
_And it's easy to give in to your fears._

_Santana:_  
_Oh. _

_Rachel:_  
_Ooh. _

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_But when you're blinded by your pain_  
_can't see your way straight through the rain._  
_A small but still_

_Rachel:_  
_resilient voice _

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_says hope is very near._

_Rachel:_  
_Oooh!_

The New Directions walked into the stage and stood behind the girls.

_New Directions:_  
_There can be miracles _

_Santana:_  
_Miracles. _

_New Directions:_  
_When you believe. _

_Santana:_  
_Lord, when you believe. _

_Rachel with New Directions:_  
_Though hope is frail,_  
_it's hard to kill. (Santana: Hard to kill, ooh) _  
_Who knows what miracles you can achieve (Santana: You can achieve)_  
_When you believe_

_New Directions:_  
_somehow you will._

_Santana:_  
_Somehow, somehow, somehow. _

_New Directions:_  
_Somehow you will._

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_No, no, no._

_Rachel with New Directions:_  
_You will when you (Santana: When you) believe._

_Santana:_  
_Oh. _

_Rachel:_  
_You will when you_

_Santana:_  
_You will when you_

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_believe._  
_Just believe._  
_You will when you believe._

Standing ovation, the second one of the evening for the McKinley kids started by Will, as usual, jumping his ass off in the backstage, moving his fist with emotion when anyone hit a high note.

_[Viva la vida – Coldplay]_

The boys went backstage, smiling and cheering after having nailed. They got on stage again as it was their verse to sing.

_Artie:_  
_I used to rule the world._  
_Seas would rise when I gave the word._  
_Now in the morning I sleep alone._  
_Sweep the streets I used to own. _

_Brittany:_  
_I used to roll the dice._  
_Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes._  
_Listen as the crowd would sing:_  
_"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"_

_Tina:_  
_One minute I held the key._  
_Next the walls were closed on me._  
_And I discovered that my castles stand_  
_upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand._

_Artie, Brittany and Tina:_  
_I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing._  
_Roman Cavalry choirs are singing._  
_Be my mirror, my sword and shield._  
_My missionaries in a foreign field._

_Artie, Brittany, Joe, Sugar and Tina:_  
_For some reason I can't explain_  
_once you go there was never_  
_never an honest word._  
_And that was when I ruled the world._

They stepped back, remaining in the back of the stage.

_Sebastian:_  
_It was the wicked and wild wind_  
_blew down the doors to let me in._  
_Shattered windows and the sound of drums._  
_People couldn't believe what I'd become._

_Blaine:_  
_Revolutionaries wait_  
_for my head on a silver plate._

_Blaine with Artie, Brittany, Joe, Rory, Sam, Sugar and Tina harmonizing:_  
_Just a puppet on a lonely string._  
_Oh who would ever want to be king?_

_Artie, Blaine, Brittany, Joe, Rory, Sam, Sebastian, Sugar and Tina:_  
_I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing._  
_Roman Cavalry choirs are singing._  
_Be my mirror, my sword and shield._  
_My missionaries in a foreign field._

_For some reason I can't explain._  
_I know Saint Peter won't call my name._  
_Never an honest word._  
_But that was when I ruled the world._

_Brittany, Joe, Rory, Sam and Sugar:_  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh._  
_Oh oh oh oh oh oh._

_Artie, Blaine, Rachel, Santana, Sebastian and Tina with Brittany, Joe, Rory, Sam and Sugar harmonizing:_  
_I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing._  
_Roman Cavalry choirs are singing._  
_Be my mirror, my sword and shield._  
_My missionaries in a foreign field._

_For some reason I can't explain._  
_I know Saint Peter won't call my name._

_Artie, Blaine, Rachel, Santana, Sebastian and Tina:_  
_Never an honest word._  
_But that was when I ruled the world._

_Brittany, Joe, Rory, Sam and Sugar:_  
_Uh, uh, uh._

The eleven singers held hands on the edge of the stage and took a long bow. As long as the round of applauses they received. Given that the judges were, for the first time, a music teacher, the owner of Sheets and Things and Mrs. Johnson, from Johnson Audiphones, it was a secure victory.

* * *

"You've sold me out," Jesse said to Rachel before she joined the rest of the joyous group in the dressing room.

Rachel walked towards Jesse, slowly but with firm step. She cupped Jesse's face with her left hand. "You don't know how long I've waited for this moment," she said right before she crashed an egg on Jesse's head. "You've made fulfilled your part of the deal, go to New York and know that there are more where this one came from." She slapped Jesse twice softly before she left him standing with egg yolk running down his face. "Let's get this party started!" Rachel yelled once she closed the dressing room door.

Everyone muted and stared at her. Rachel blinked a few times. "What's the pr…" she stopped talking when she realized that Puck and Puck's best friend were there with them too. "Oh." She smiled at Finn with a slight blush rushing to her cheeks.

"Frodo, turn around, this is something we all need to witness." Santana took Finn and Rachel by their hands and placed them in the middle of the room, in the center of the circle the New Directions had formed.

Rachel looked at Blaine first, looking for his approval. Once she saw him nodding, she looked back into Finn's eyes and kissed him passionately. Sam shook and uncorked a bottle of sparkle cider, shooting foam all over the room. The cheering and the applauses lasted till the kiss ended.

"Are you crying, honey?" Brittany held her girlfriend's hand, swinging it as she asked.

Santana denied it all, "exhaustion tears. Fucking hell." She let herself fall onto one of the chairs.

Tina sat on Artie's lap, kissing him as well, deeply, in an excessive and even gross way. She was thirty seconds away of undoing the boy's pants and… rating T doesn't allow to finish the description of Tina Cohen-Chang's intentions, but it would have been definitely not classy.

"I have something to say." Finn knelt. "Rachel Barbra Berry…"

"Oh Good Lord in Heaven." Puck turned around and put his hands on his head. "Not again, not again, not again, not again."

Finn chuckled before he carried on with his proposal. "Rachel Barbra Berry, do you want to move to New York with me, no rings, vows or priests involved. Just you and me. And maybe my brother until we find a place of our own."

Suddenly Tina threw herself onto her knees and kissed Finn on the lips. "Yes! I love you too! Yes! YES!" She threw her arms into the air, thanking every single god in every single religion of every single civilization of the history of mankind.

"Do you realize that this is like you just kissed me?" Rachel asked laughing. "And," she answered Finn, "of course I do." She held his hands and helped him up before turning back to Tina. "I am gonna kiss him again, so it will be as if I kissed you. Consider it as a rite of passage and the best kiss of your life. Sorry, Artie."

"That means… that you're leaving?" Blaine asked, feeling sad for the first time that day.

There was neither answer nor second Finchel kiss. Emma irrupted in the room with a bang. "Sue's in labor!"

* * *

**Quick announcement: this week I'll post the last chapter, so get ready for the big closure before Glee returns. I'm so sad right now, but all good things come to an end :(**


	28. Sue

**28. Sue**

"Take this out of me!"

It was one roar after the another. Nothing else could be heard in that ambulance. Not even the sound of traffic or the siren, just Sue Sylvester yelling like she was getting her guts ripped inside out. Wait a minute, she was.

"William! Give me your hand! No, not hard enough. Your head! That unhealthy amount of butter will protect your deficient brain. Aaah! GIMME SOMETHING TO SQUEEZE, CRUSH OR KILL RIGHT NOW!"

Yes, it was a hell of a road to the hospital.

* * *

"No, seriously, why do people always break their waters always before we have to accept a trophy?" Artie asked as they waited for the judges to deliberate in the dressing room.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked Puck, while holding Rachel in his arms.

The mohawk guy slid the phone in his pocket. "Santana and Brittany are going to the hospital. We should go too, right?"

"I have no interest in going to the birth/baptism/quinceañera of that succubus, and neither do you," Roz said while storming into the dressing room. "Now I am the coach in charge, so nobody moves from here till you sing We Are the Champions."

The remaining kids frowned before Puck headed to the door.

"I don't know your name, but you're so expelled if you want out into this jungly neighborhood. You can't leave the building without an adult, a bodyguard or proper protective measures."

"See you at the hospital?" he asked his best bro.

Finn nodded, and Rachel kept arching her eyebrows. "What are you up to? A make-up/birth surprise number? Oh! I love you so much!" She kissed her boyfriend.

The lights of the dressing room flickered, and the kids went back to the stage, along with the other two choirs. The first one was a high-school dropouts academy whose leader was a 40-year-old gospel singer of, in Sugar's words (I repeat: Sugar's) "the woman's church had to have more deaf people sitting on its rows than on the whole state." And there was nothing to say about the third choir, the Jane Addams girls. This time without stealing any of the New Directions' numbers. But they did lift a few wallets.

The nine boys stood between the other two clubs, waiting for the verdict of the judges. "In third place…" Mrs. Johnson from Johnson Audiphones said. "The Jane Addams Academy!"

The New Directions stepped back, not because they wanted to give their opponents their minute under the spotlight, no. Just in case there were retaliations. "And, the winner of this year's West-Central Ohio Sectionals is… Drumroll, please."

As nervous faces showed up among the other contestants, Rachel Berry's ego took control of her body. Ecstatic due to the man that was sitting in the first row and her near comeback to the Big Apple, she wrenched the microphone away from the judge. "The New Directions!"

She took a quick glance of the envelope with their name written on it just to make sure that she wasn't embarrassing herself and her choir for the rest of their pitiful lives. The kids started jumping and celebrating along the stage, passing the trophy from one's hands to another's. "You're welcome," Rachel whispered into Tina's ear before dodging a slap. She stuck out her tongue as she walked down the stage to kiss Finn.

* * *

"Female, 52 years…"

Sue punched the paramedic before he could finish the report of her state while entering the ER. "32! You son of a whore!"

"Take her to a labor room and strap her down," the paramedic said.

* * *

Once with the epidural running through her veins, Sue got incredibly relaxed. No one would have said that that was the same woman that almost set the ambulance on fire. "Hey there," a soft voice woke her up from her trance.

"Go back to hell, Grace Kelly," Sue answered.

Quinn chuckled as she sat down on the chair next to Sue's bed. She held her former coach's hand. "It's Q, Coach."

"Your gang of losers has already performed their de-renditions of three songs whose writers/singers will get indemnified on the next two to four months."

The girl smiled. "I am in town for the weekend and Puck told me that you went into labor, so here I am."

"You think that your experience on the field of teenage pregnancy will be useful in this situation?"

Quinn nodded. "The best thing you could do is relax, push when the doctor tells you to and…"

Sue spit at her former head Cheerio. "Seriously? That's your whole contribution to this historical moment in the History of our country?" She made a pause. "Q, I'm gonna be honest with you. I might not survive this birth. I know my life has just started, but the silver lining is that my first-born will have a powerful argument on his way to the White House."

Quinn's eyes filled with tears. "You what?"

"Yes, America, my mother died to give me life. Yes, America, I am a son of death. Yes, America, I am the light that can shine us through the dark days of the Communism that is ravaging our nation since that fatidic war that I will not mention, because the United States of America, Canada included, are bigger than their past! Yes, America, I am Sylvester Sylvester, and if I made it through death when I was one second old, I'll take you all to heaven on Earth! Here's to you Mom. Here's to you, Dad-who-will-be-so-proud-of-me-but-whose-name-remains-secret. Oh America! Oh!" After Sue finished pre-quoting her son's speech, she turned to Quinn. "And if you want to do something that doesn't make me wanna roll my eyes and puke for once since you jumped from a human pyramid for the last time, let me die doing the thing I love the most."

* * *

Sue's last wish got to be made true. Each one of the Glee kids passed through her room just to be insulted and ridiculed for one final time.

"Boobs, once upon a time I felt a glimmer of pride when I saw you walking down the hallways of our school. Do you know what I felt today when I saw you faking an impromptu performance?"

Santana nodded.

"Shame. Do you think you can sit in the audience and make us all think that you got to share a solo with Barbra the same way I would have if I had been the one on that seat? Shame on you and shame on the day you joined that dreadful Glee Club."

"You forced me, Brittany and Quinn to spy them from the inside."

"SHAME!"

* * *

"My poor poor Brittany. I will be brief with you for two main reasons: A) I don't think you can process more than a 13% of the words I'll say in the next minute and B) You have more than enough with the burden of being kidnapped for one more year in that choir room. And, by the way, I found your cat trying to eat my tampons yesterday, so I hung them by the tail from the ceiling. That's not the problem. The problem is it got an erection. Put away that depraved pet of yours."

* * *

"Oh, Barbra. One of the most hideous people I had the misfortune to meet. I never understood the appeal you have to young pathetic singers, even the gay ones. I want you to know that no one in this world will believe that you have had more sexual partners in the last four years than the blonde head cheerleader. And don't you ever think of telling anybody that you shared two men. That I know. I will find it all in half an hour when your parents' hearing and I have a catch-up in heaven."

* * *

"What's your name?"

"Joseph Hart."

"Do you know what you're doing here?"

"No."

"Me neither. Get the fuck out!"

* * *

"Wheels, I'm gonna be honest with you. I have some kind of affection towards disabled or handicapped kids. It might have something to do with my beloved sister. Or maybe it's some kind of counterparty karma needed to put on me since I am the most verbally brutal person on the face of Earth, soon on the brightest cloud of Heaven. But you are the exception that breaks my rule. My hate for you is not proportional to the movement of your legs. I hate you, your glasses, your weird voice and your gloves. And I do want you to give me those aforesaid gloves, because I want to take them to the cremation oven with me."

* * *

"Bowtied gay… Wait, no, you've nailed Berry. Damn. Bowtied undefined-sexuality boy…"

"Rachel and I didn't go that far," Blaine interrupted Sue.

"I truly do not care about that. Your relationship is equally disappointing whether you got into her ugly-as-hell pants or not. I'm going to be quick because I don't want you to start singing. I learnt to put up with your female clone's solos, but I swear to God that if I had to listen to another one of yours I'd go straight to hell, and that's a risk I'm not willing to take. Tell your brother that I've already arranged all the paperwork for him to be officially the guardian of his son."

Blaine almost fainted. "What?!"

"I was kidding. I just wanted to see if you had more facial expressions besides the puppy eyes you use when you stare at one of your poor sexual victims."

* * *

"I'll make my last confession to you. In these last three years I've tried to get into some of my favorite students' heads in order to rip some of your Glee Club captains' vocal chords. Fabray went nuts, Jones has a tendency to bond with other divas, something that will lead her career to the most depressing and drug-filled place in this world. So I put all my trust in you, Tina Cohen-Ming. There's a gunshot under my desk. I know you'll use it properly."

* * *

"Who the hell are you?"

And Sebastian walked out of the room.

* * *

"Macaulay, when I met you I thought you could be the one that saved my Q from that hustle and bustle of pathetic teenage lovers that led her to be in the same position I am today, having my precious vagina totally wrecked. But no, you let he drown in a pit of self-hatred while watching Puckerman date Zizes and Hudson nail Berry. You are the truly reason why her husband will only be able to see Ryan's Seacrest's face when that poor bastard puts her in all fours." Sue made a pause. "And, just for your information, I've spread a rumor that you are dating one of your stripper fellas. I wanted to see if after Berry, the gay after Hummel had developed a thing for big mouths."

* * *

"I won't talk to you because I don't know if you understand my language," Sue blurted out to Rory.

* * *

"I've set up a whole conspiracy to make you be the next leader of the New Directions. Start rehearsing, because the most powerful men and women of this glorious nation are waiting for you to have three solos in your next competition. You're so welcome."

Sugar hopped and clapped out of the room.

* * *

"Sue!" Will stormed into the room. "Why are you telling the kids that you're dying?!"

The coach rolled her eyes. "Oh, William, when that old bitchy nurse told me that my Kegel exercises had made my vagina too tight and this was going to be a long, long labor, I needed something to distract my mind of this baby whose head is trying to burst out of my body. For once your kids have been helpful. Don't blame me. Just be proud. And now, if you excuse me, I have a few inches more to dilate."

* * *

Quinn hurried up. She didn't want to run into any of her friends, ex fiancés or other people she hated. But, once again and following the tradition, what she wanted didn't go well. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no." She turned around to leave by the other exit.

"I owe you and apology," Finn said before she went round the corner.

Rachel elbowed him in his ribs. "No, you don't!"

He smiled at her girlfriend and let go of her hand, starting to walk towards Quinn. "I did what I didn't want to do. I swear that I didn't want to hurt you. But I couldn't find the moment to tell you that…"

"That you didn't love me," she said, still with her back to Finn.

The tall boy sighed. "Everything happened so fast… and…"

Eventually Quinn turned around. "When everybody confabulated to throw our wedding overboard you saw it all clear. Let's think about Rachel's feelings for once, right? Because nobody ever notices this little bitch."

"Here we go with the jealousy," Rachel said while giving a twirl with her hands behind her head.

Quinn took a deep breath. The deepest breath she had ever taken, actually. "And now I'm gonna go because it would have no sense to break your beloved girl's disproportional nose in a hospital," she told Finn calmly. "What's the use if you don't choke with your own blood?!" she ended up yelling at Rachel before resuming her way out.

* * *

"What the…?" Quinn said when she arrived at the parking lot. What she found was Artie (wheelchair included) sitting on the top of her car and Blaine, Rory and Sam leaning on it.

Puck came closer from her back and covered Quinn's eyes. "No, Shelby's not in Lima for the weekend with the girl. And yes, this is kind of a trap, but… you'll like it." He moved to stand opposite his child's mother.

_[She will be loved – Maroon 5]_

_Puck:_  
_Beauty queen of only eighteen._  
_She had some trouble with herself._  
_He was always there to help her._  
_She always belonged to someone else._

_I drove for miles and miles_  
_and wound up at your door._  
_I've had you so many times but somehow_  
_I want more._

_I don't mind spending everyday_  
_out on your corner in the pouring rain._  
_Look for the girl with the broken smile._  
_Ask her if she wants to stay awhile._

_Puck with Artie, Blaine, Rory and Sam:_  
_And she will be loved._  
_She will be loved._

_Puck:_  
_Tap on my window. Knock on my door._  
_I want to make you feel beautiful._  
_I know I tend to get so insecure._  
_It doesn't matter anymore._

_It's not always rainbows and butterflies,_  
_it's compromise that moves us along._  
_Yeah._  
_My heart is full and my door's always open._  
_You can come anytime you want._  
_Yeah._

_Puck with Artie, Blaine, Rory and Sam:_  
_I don't mind spending everyday_  
_out on your corner in the pouring rain._  
_Look for the girl with the broken smile._  
_Ask her if she wants to stay awhile._

_And she will be loved._  
_And she will be loved._  
_And she will be loved._  
_And she will be loved._

_Puck:_  
_I know where you hide alone in your car._  
_Know all of the things that make you who you are._  
_I know that goodbye means nothing at all._  
_Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls._  
_Yeah._

_Tap on my window. Knock on my door._  
_I want to make you feel beautiful._

_Puck with Artie, Blaine, Rory and Sam:_  
_I don't mind spending everyday_  
_out on your corner in the pouring rain._  
_Look for the girl with the broken smile._  
_Ask her if she wants to stay awhile._

_Puck:_  
_And she will be loved._  
_And she will be loved._

_Artie, Blaine, Rory and Sam:_  
_Please don't try so hard to say goodbye._

_Puck:_  
_And she will be loved._  
_And she will be loved._

_Artie, Blaine, Rory and Sam:_  
_Please don't try so hard to say goodbye. (Puck: Yeah. Yeah, yeah!)_  
_Please don't try so hard to say goodbye._

_Puck:_  
_I don't mind spending everyday_  
_out on your corner in the pouring rain._

_Puck with Artie, Blaine, Rory and Sam:_  
_Please don't try so hard to say goodbye._

"I… You… A serenade for me?" Quinn said in tears.

Puck held her hands. "You went to Cali for me. To try to make things up. Let's pretend it's July and you're in my place with no Finn in sight. Just you and da Puckerone." He made an obscene sign towards his crotch as he rocked his hips.

Quinn punched him playfully. "You know how to kill the moment."

And they both merged into a long kiss before the eyes of all the New Directions' kids and half of the patients of the hospital who came by to see Puck singing.

"We don't know how much time do we have till she loses it again and tries to hunt you down again, so we better hurry up back to New York," Rachel told Finn.

"You two owe that poor bastard a huge one," Santana added.


	29. Rachel II

**As promised, tonight Glee's Renaissance Season begins so... this is the last chapter of To Move On. It's the closure of this amazing month and a half, that's why it's a little bit longer. Enjoy it:**

* * *

**29. Rachel (II)**

"This is your day. It has finally arrived. You deserved it, Tina Cohen-Chang," she said to herself before walking out of the ladies room. "So yes, the moment is perfect. Your voice range couldn't sound brighter, your bangs are longer than ever and the solo swallower monster is on a plane back to her hole in New York waiting for a gang of multicultural rapists to make her day."

In her eyes, "superiority" could be read clearly as she walked down the hallways. "I will give you another national championship, my people. My three solos will be on constant replay during the next decade till another start as shiny as I am performs a rendition to my heroic deed in her Nationals. Yes, I'll invent the recipe for infallible victory."

"Shut up, you crazy pest!" Becky said as she threw a slushie at her face.

* * *

She had to retrace her steps to the bathroom and clean herself, but she made it on time to the Glee Club. "Your captain is here, my fellas!" Tina said while walking into the classroom with her arms in the air.

"Of course I am," Rachel answered. "Is it everybody here?"

Tina's face turned into a cold sneer. "You were going to New York with Finn. You were going to New York with Finn!" she yelled. That day, the highest pitch a human being could reach was called after her once she tore down the walls of the physics of the sound.

Rachel looked down. "When you kissed him the other day… he told me that he'd need more time to think and rearrange his feelings." She raised her head and put her hands on her hips. "So I'm staying for six months more," she said cheerfully.

Does anyone know when a tantrum is more life-threatening? When it's all about cursing and breaking things or when you have a Berry-wannabe with an eye twitching and her face looks like she's about to explode into a bloodbath? Tina grabbed a blunt pen and took it to her neck. "Tell my family I love them."

When she was ready to cut her throat, Rachel stopped her. "Oh my God. I was kidding. I don't know what's more disturbing: that you tried to kill yourself just because of my presence in here or that you thought that my Finny could fall for you. Have you considered the chance of seeing a shrink?" She made a pause. "Anyway, my flight takes off tonight, so… this is my goodbye."

Though they all had witnessed Finn's proposal, no one thought about Rachel leaving that early. But it was Finn Hudson, a man who had sent wedding invitations twice in less than half a year and who still had to think of a postman not to come too quickly in bed or in any other place the hunger appeared; you know what I mean.

"I came back for one reason and now… well, my reason has come back to me, so there's nothing holding me anymore."

Once Tina calmed down, she sat next to Rachel and held her hand. "You don't know how happy I am for you, and I really hope you don't get hit by a taxi. Seriously, I say it from the bottom of my heart. God forbid you don't have to do some recovery at home because your head got that smashed against a windshield that you don't even remember how to dress yourself." Tina's face was between eternal happiness and orgasm climax.

"Doesn't she already?" Sugar asked.

For once, everything was happiness, dreams getting made true, expected departures and a trophy shining on the top of the piano. It felt like nothing could go wrong.

Will took her soon-to-be-again-former student to the center of the classroom. "Well, Rachel, I think I speak on behalf of all of us when I say that we thank you so much that you've stayed with us during these hard months and that you've helped us through Sectionals."

Tina fake-coughed. "Nothing we hadn't done before."

Rachel chuckled. "Anyway, I'm not pulling back my tuition. So in case you run out of people again, give me a call. I promise I will only do back-ups." Then she coughed like her nemesis/clone did. "In case you wanna throw the championship."

Everyone laughed, included Tina. "That means that we have to reelect a co-captain, right, Mr. Shue?" she asked.

"As my last will, I give the throne to Santana with the only condition that she stops doing The Lord of the Rings references about Blaine. Do not kill each other," Rachel said to her best friends with a big smile.

"What the hell do you think this is? Europe?! You can't establish a monarchy just to fuck me up, you bitch!" Rachel stood up in the precise moment, so Tina's fist didn't hit her face. The raging girl left the choir room scratching the walls with an oboe she took from one of the guys of the band. "A coup d'état is what we need here," she said to herself on her way to Sue's office.

Rachel took one last look at her favorite classroom in the world. The couples… how Blaine finally found someone with a little morale in Sebastian; how Santana could save her Brittana; how Artie was breathing more relieved with Tina in the distance and…

"Yes, I've realized that a polyamorous relationship is what works best for me," Sugar said when Rachel fixed her eyes on Rory and Joe holding Lady Motta's hands. "Samuel! My hair!"

Obviously, Trouty moved a few seats further from Sugar as the other two boys tried to pull their hands away from the girl's claws.

"Anyway… what about a goodbye song?" Rachel said, not overthinking what she was staring at. "You know what I want," she told Brad as she winked an eye. "Oh, I'm gonna miss my piano man so much. Next time I come we'll do a tribute to him, okay?"

_[Memory – Barbra Streisand]_

_Rachel:_  
_Midnight, not a sound from the pavement._  
_Has the moon lost her memory?_  
_She is smiling alone._

_In the lamplight the withered leaves collect at my feet_  
_and the wind begins to moan._

_Memory, all alone in the moonlight._  
_I can smile at the old days._  
_Life was beautiful then._

_I remember the time I knew what happiness was._  
_Let the memory live again._

_Every street lamp seems to beat_  
_a fatalistic warning._  
_Someone mutters_  
_and the street lamp gutters._  
_And soon it will be morning._

_Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise._  
_I must think of a new life_  
_and I mustn't give in._

_When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too._  
_And a new day will begin._

Standing in the middle of the choir room, she smiled at every single one of her friends as a tear ran down her cheek.

_Rachel:_  
_Burnt out ends of smoky days._  
_The still cold smell of morning._  
_A street lamp dies, another night is over._  
_Another day is dawning_.

Rachel held both Blaine's and Santana's hands, squeezing them in the climax of the song.

_Rachel:_  
_Touch me, it's so easy to leave me_  
_all alone with the memory_  
_of my days in the sun._

_If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is._  
_Look, a new day has begun._

"The one and only Rachel Barbra Berry!" she said as she took a bow, walking backwards to the middle of the classroom.

* * *

"Yeah, yeah, lots and lots of hugging and kissing and singing and whining like we were all PMSing; but nobody is going to say it?" Santana said while throwing Rachel's clothes into the dustbin. Note needed: the third dustbin of not-to-take clothes. "Rachel, again?"

"Wasn't that the whole purpose of your magnificent plan to restore the natural order of cosmos in Lima?" Blaine asked.

"You were more helpful when you were all Cheryl trying to fight for this love," the muse of Lima Heights replied.

The tree of them kept discussing Rachel's clichesque destiny with Finn until they finished packing her suitcase. And yes, her pink case was not even nearly enough.

"I'm going back to New York, Finn is not with Quinn, Blaine keeps rocking his solos in Glee with a gay partner by his side…"

"Let's not question my sexuality, next year maybe, but this one we have had more than enough of the what-do-I-like shit, right, boy-formerly-known-as-Frodo?" Santana punched Blaine's shoulder playfully.

Rachel opened her drawer and pulled out an envelope that she handed to her friend. "I wasn't talking about you."

Santana read the content of the envelope carefully. "You want me to escort you to JFK?" She frowned as she kept looking at the plane ticket.

"It's my 'thank-you' present." Blaine turned into his puppy eyes mode at Rachel's words. "Yours is a VIP audition for NYADA and a seat next to me for the next four years," she said as she cupped his face.

Then the puppy eyes evolved into the foolish smile. The facial expression courses of NYADA would definitely make some serious good on this boy.

"I still don't get it," Santana replied.

"I called Shelby after the whole Jesse debacle and… good news, you get the female lead on her musical. Bad news: you two are gonna have to learn how to put up with each other. At least on stage."

Santana wrapped her arms around Rachel's neck and hugged her to the point of almost breaking the diva's C2 and C3.

"Then what's the use of us getting aimed with a gunshot this morning?" Blaine asked from his spot on Rachel's bed. This would be a good moment for a flashback of what happened when Tina came back from Sue's office, but there's no need to involve the police in this story.

Rachel gave Blaine another envelope once she got rid of Santana's deadly embrace. "I just wanted to mess up with her a little. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and that táser didn't kill her, so… she's so welcome. And that's a cession of powers. Text me your first duet if you survive." She laughed.

"And do you want me to pack, go to the airport and break up with Brittany in less than two hours?!" she joked. "Whatever, see you on the plane." She turned around before walking out of Rachel's room. "Oh, and…" it was something hard to say, but Santana finally made it, "…Blaine, if I find out that you and that boyfriend of yours with the sexual activity of a ghost of American Horror Story try to pervert my sweet sweet Brit, I'll set your head on fire just to see how inflammable your hair is because I've spent the last two years wondering if I can find petrol in your comb."

Once Santana left, Blaine and Rachel sat on her bed, in silence for a while. "Brief but intense, huh?" he asked, breaking the ice that had formed between them during those minutes.

Rachel leant her head on his shoulder. "Promise me you'll come to see me," they said in unison before bursting into laughter.

"I'm gonna miss you so much," Rachel pouted.

Blaine held her in his arms. "I love you so much."

"Hearing it feels better when I'm not thinking of kissing you."

For a second, they looked into each other's eyes. Watching the whole world in those pupils. Feeling too many things during that instant. So they stood up and started wandering up and down the room, trying not to think about any resurrected flame.

"Let's not get melodramatic and just say goodbye, okay? I'll go to NY next month, I don't want to miss Broadway season."

"Yeah, it's not a forever goodbye or anything," Rachel replied with her head down.

Blaine raised her chin. "See you later?"

"Later."

And the smile faded from the boy's face as he walked out of Rachel's room. "Later," he said to himself.

* * *

Santana opened the door of her old apartment in the city. "Oh my God, home sweet home!" She let herself fall on the miserable couch she and Kurt had.

Rachel walked in shyly and closed the door while dropping her bags and suitcase on the floor, breaking one of the old floorboards full of termites. She hurried up to hug her boyfriend when he came out of one of the rooms of the flat. "I was worried that you weren't here."

"You don't want to face the beast by yourself, right?" Kurt said, leaning on the doorframe of the same room Finn had come from.

"Oh! The only gay in this world that I'm not afraid of! Tell me you're not in the lady business too, please." Santana hugged Kurt as she chuckled in his ear.

"Glad to see you too, girlfriend," he answered. "And you," Kurt said after letting go of Santana's hug. "Come here."

Rachel stepped forward. The good thing about New York is that you don't have to walk a lot in cheap apartments. "Fresh new start?" she asked Kurt while standing opposite his once-BFF.

Kurt hugged her, putting behind all the things that had happened between them and trying to forget about the curses he had asked a gypsy lady in Central Park to put on Rachel.

"If you expect me to hug you, I think I'd rather kill the moment. Or myself," Santana told Finn.

The tall boy chuckled. "She doesn't know that the number of lines of her character on Shelby's play depends on me, does she?"

"What?! Are you telling me that I'm going to be bossed around by 'this', besides the huge pleasure that brings me the fact of the shared bathroom?" Santana asked Rachel with bloodshot eyes.

Rachel sat on the couch with a big smile on her face. "Female lead," she pointed at her friend, "meet your head scriptwriter," she moved her hand to Finn's belly before patting it twice. "And you are joining the gym downstairs right now."

Kurt stood there, silent, watching some movement in his house for the first time since… a RuPaul's mentee passed by to… let's say to take the five-o'clock tea during Kurt's English week.

"Okay, but let's put it plain and simple from here. There are two beds and one shitty couch, and there's no way I'm gonna hear my dear head scriptwriter's heavenly moans during that thing you two call 'make love' and I define as 'interspecies matching'. Am I understood? I'm sleeping with Berry and if you need to vent, use the subway as every single teenage couple in this city."

"Tell me you've already found a place." Rachel smiled at her man.

Santana kept bitching for a while until she locked herself into her room. "Yes, I've survived the flight and no, I love you, but we don't have enough oxygen in here for you to bring Lord Tubbington next weekend."

"And that's why you shouldn't get intimate if you're not alone in the house," Kurt explained as they heard Santana's conversation on the phone. "But let's not talk about the structural deficiencies of my humble abode. You and I have some serious catch-up to do." He squeezed Rachel's leg as he sat next to the diva.

"You don't really want to know it and I don't really want to talk about it either." She looked at Finn, standing in front of her with their fingers intertwined. Finally. In The City. Together. "I want to leave all the bad things of these months and… Well, just… To move on."

* * *

_[Some nights – fun.]_

_New Directions:_  
_Some nights I stay up cashing in my bad luck._  
_Some nights I call it a draw._  
_Some nights I wish that my lips could build a castle._  
_Some nights I wish they'd just fall off._

_But I still wake up, I still see your ghost._  
_Oh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for. Oh._

_Artie, Blaine, Brittany and Tina with Joe, Rory, Sam, Sebastian and Sugar harmonizing:_  
_What do I stand for?_  
_What do I stand for? _

_Blaine and Tina:_  
_Most nights, I don't know_

_Blaine and Tina with New Directions:_  
_anymore..._

_New Directions:_  
_Oh, oh, oh, oh._  
_Oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Finn:_  
_This is it, boys, this is war_  
_What are we waiting for?_  
_Why don't we break the rules already? _

_Santana:_  
_I was never one to believe the hype._  
_Save that for the black and white._  
_I try twice as hard and I'm half as liked._  
_But here they come again to jack my style._

_Puck:_  
_That's alright. (Quinn: that's alright)_  
_I found a martyr in my bed tonight._  
_She stops my bones from wondering just who I am, who I am, who I am_

_Puck and Quinn:_  
_And… Oh, who am I?_  
_Oh. Oh._

_Artie:_  
_Well. _

_New Directions:_  
_Some nights I wish that this all would end,_  
_'Cause I could use some friends for a change._  
_And some nights I'm scared you'll forget me again._  
_Some nights I always win._

_Brittany:_  
_I always win..._

_New Directions:_  
_But I still wake up, I still see your ghost._  
_Oh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for. Oh._

_Artie, Blaine, Brittany and Tina with Joe, Rory, Sam, Sebastian and Sugar harmonizing:_  
_What do I stand for?_  
_What do I stand for?_

_Artie and Brittany:_  
_Most nights, I don't know._

_Kurt:_  
_Oh, come on._

_Mike:_  
_So this is it? I sold my soul for this?_  
_Washed my hands of that for this?_  
_I miss my mom and dad for this?_

_Kurt:_  
_Oh, come on._

_Mike:_  
_No. When I see stars, when I see…_  
_When I see stars that's all they are._  
_When I hear songs…_

_Rachel:_  
_They sound like this one, so come on._

_Quinn:_  
_Oh, come on._

_Tina:_  
_Oh, come on. _

_Mercedes:_  
_Oh, come on!_

_Blaine with New Directions harmonizing:_  
_Well, that is it guys, that is all._  
_Five minutes in and I'm bored again._  
_Ten years of this, I'm not sure if anybody understands. _

_Sebastian with New Directions harmonizing:_  
_This one is not for the folks at home._  
_Sorry to leave, mom, I had to go._  
_Who the fuck wants to die alone all dried up in the desert sun?_

_Rachel and Santana:_  
_My heart is breaking for my sister_

_and the con that she call love._  
_When I look into my nephew's eyes..._  
_Man, you wouldn't believe_  
_the most amazing things_  
_that can come from..._

_Some terrible nights... ah, ah, ah._  
_Ah, ah, ah._

_New Directions:_  
_Oh, oh, oh, oh._  
_Oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Artie:_  
_The other night, you wouldn't believe the dream I just had about you and me._  
_I called you up, but we'd both agree._

_Brittany and Santana:_  
_It's for the best you didn't listen._

_Finn and Quinn:_  
_It's for the best we get our distance... Oh..._

_Artie and Tina:_  
_It's for the best you didn't listen._

_Blaine and Rachel:_  
_It's for the best we get our distance... Oh..._

* * *

**It's feels so weird but this is the end. I really really reeeally hope that you've liked this, my first fic of what I'm sure will be lots. I had an amazing and rewarding experience that has filled my summer and my heart but I had to move on too. It's sad for me to say goodbye, but let's follow Blaichel's advice: "later." Following another TMO's example, thank-yous time: thank you all for the follows, the reviews and the visits. Thank you all for the support and for reading this little piece of gleekism.** **And another huge thank-you to my dear personal beta, Aiwendil94.**

**That's all for now. Literally, for now, because I don't know when but... I'll definitely come back ****_To Keep Moving On_****.**


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